Invicta
by D.Bladikus
Summary: Commodus is dead, I had enacted my revenge. Now only peace greets me in the afterlife with my wife and son. A peace that did not last as I was called by the Gods to enter another war. A war not in the realm of the Gods but in a world that does not know peace only the craft of war.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my other project as some of you would already know from speaking about it in my other story. This one is probable the most crack of crack crossover can get but I really think this'll work out. Hopefully.**

 **I do not own anything. ;(**

 **XXX**

In the great city of Rome all were present in the coliseum, to see a show that one rarely ever gets to see. A battle between the current Emperor and a former, famous, Roman General turned slave. The battle ended as quickly as it begun with a shocking conclusion, the Emperor being killed.

This was inconceivable in any roman's minds. The very few times an Emperor entered the arena they were always victorious not because of skill but because of their wealth and power. All of the roman people knew that most of those games were rigged for the Emperor's victory.

"Who shall help me carry him." Princess Lucilla the sister of the now dead Commodus, former Emperor of Rome, called to the surrounding gladiators,soldiers, and senators. In response to her call a large number of all three groups began to walk towards a downed man in the center of the circling individuals. The man on the ground is the one who killed Emperor Commodus, a man who enacted his vengeance. This man whose son, wife, father-like figure,Marcus Aurelius( Who was also Commodus's father) the Emperor of Rome before Commodus , friends, career and life were either murdered or destroyed by Commodus. This man's name is Maximus Decimus Meridius.

As the men lifted him off the ground Maximus stared to the bright sun above the clouds. As his mind begins to lose its consciousness with his only thought being hope he would see his deceased wife and son in the afterlife, if there was one. His half lidded eyes finally closed completely as he let himself finally relax,rest, from the restless days he has been through.

A soft breeze touched his face, as loud rustling sounded around him. He opened his eyes to see a beautiful sight. A field of grain spanning as far as the eye can see with a small yet decorative home in the middle, with a road leading through it. He knew what this place was, it was his home, it was same home his family was murdered in. His eyes narrowed at the thought, eyes watering with tears of sadness but in the distance he could something,someone. His eyes, at first, had difficulty discerning who the people were until his eyes final adjusted to the light. His tears of sadness soon became tears of joy. His wife and son were with him, in their home in the afterlife. He walked towards them, his hand grazing the field of grain, as his family also walked towards him, his son however, was running. A soft smile came over his face at the sight of his son.

"Father!" the boy yelled as he neared Maximus. With the distance quickly lessening Maximus kneeled with one knee and caught his son as he rammed into him. He chuckled as his son giggled as they hugged. Maximus was, is, happy, after all the hardship he gone through he can finally rest peacefully with his family. Maximus stood up ruffling his son's hair as he looked to his wife that now stood in front of him. He could not resist the urge to embrace her and give a heart filled kiss, with his wife returning it wholefully.

"I have missed you, dearly" Maximus said with his soft smile still plastered on to his face.

"And I have missed you as well, Maximus." His wife said as she held his hand. They began to walk towards their home for a day of celebration, ironically considering they are all dead. Maximus and his family spoke of his exploits that they already knew of, they have been watching him since the moment they were killed. It still pained his heart that he could not save them but they held no remorse and told him to feel the same for they are now all together and that's all that matters. For the entire day and night they feasted on food that tasted fit for gods to eat. Maximus and his son played with either wooden swords or chasing each other around the home, with his wife having an unending happy smile on her face. Watching them peacefully from a chair on their homes porch. After the young boy was all tired out and put to sleep he and his wife had taken the chance to express their love in a more intimate form.

XXX

As the morning came Maximus and his family were in the room munching on some fruits and snacks for breakfast before they would begin to work in their peaceful farm. Though he noticed something in his wife's eyes every time he would look at them. They had sadness in them and he

could not fathom why she would have this. So he sent son to go to his room and set up a mock battle with his toy soldiers. His son, with much enthusiasm, ran to his room to do what his father told him. As his son left the main room he turned to his wife that had her back turned, her long black hair falling to her lower back.

"Selene, what's wrong?" He said as he approached her. Her hands were trembling as she held a plate as tears were falling from her eyes. He now was worried, what could have caused to act so different from yesterday? Her eyes locked with his as she placed the plate down on the table as she sat on the stool. Maximus sat next her with his hand on her back.

"Maximus, before you arrived I was visited… by the Gods." Maximus's eyes grew wide as this.

'Which gods?" He asked curiously yet seriously. She hesitated with her response as she looked at her hands.

" Vesta, Mars, and Jupiter they came saying that your journey has not yet been completed. That there is still another fight, another war you must be a part of." She said as more tears fell from her face. Maximus tried to comfort her in any way he could as he thought upon her words. The Gods are calling him to fight in a war, it would seem even in the afterlife war still continues. He wished he could say no the Gods but he can't. They have the power of destroying his family's souls completely or worse tartarus for all eternity.

" They said they will arrive for you in the morning the day after you've arrived. They were also the ones who gave us the food as a way to give you welcoming and goodbye meal or something of the sort." She continued as tears still fell but not as strong as before.

"I knew that food was to godly to have been made by your hands." Maximus joked getting a smack to the arm for his subtle insult/joke but he got a storn look by his wife which causing him to lose his small smile. Before either can say anything more a knock was heard from the front of their home. He, Selene and their son, who had heard the knock as well, walked towards their door. When they arrived, finding the door already open, they found a woman in a stainless silk white cloth. With flawless skin, a beautiful face and a attractive body, her blond hair place in a large bun on her head with two locks of said hair falling to boths sides of her face. Her most mesmerizing site, however, were her pure, heavenly gold eyes. A smile spread across her lips as she saw Maximus but her eyes her filled with sadness.

"I am Vesta Goddess of Family and Home, may I come in" She asked with an unbelievably, beautiful, angelic voice. Maximus and his family bowed their heads, with Maximus saying 'Of course, my lady'. They led her to the main room the family waited for her to sit first before they sat themselves. Maximus apologized for their lack of preparation and quality of furniture that surely she was not used to. She waved them off saying it was 'alright' and that she didn't mind the quality. She went on to say how it gave their home a more family atmosphere that she enjoyed greatly, which made sense for she is the Goddess of Family and home after all. Her smile faded ,however, when she looked at Maximus replacing it with a grim expression.

"I'm sorry, Maximus, for all that has happened to you and for what I, we, will put to put you through." She said grimly as Maximus only nodded.

" It is alright, my lady, this is your realm and we are simply quests. We have to on some way compensate your generosity. In that note where is the front for this war you want me to fight in." Maximus asked as his wife's face grew tearful again and his son grew confused. Vesta's face grew slightly angry as his question causing Maximus to worry that he had done something.

"I'm sorry Maximus, again, but their is no war in this realm you will be directly participating." This confused and his wife. Taking their expressions as if they were saying 'What do you mean?' Vesta continued.

" You, Maximus, have been chosen by not one of us nor any other God our plain. You were chosen by something we can not control and that is your fate or destiny as some would like to call it. Though keep in mind that destinies are vague and very open so that it usually only says your destination not your actions or ending." The more she spoke the more Maximus grew confused not at the concept of fate or destiny but of the part about destination. Where was he going?

"You have been marked to enter a different world. A world where you will play a powerful role in but what you do in the world all depends on your choices." She finished getting a confused look from the young boy a bemused look from Selene and a shocked looked from Maximus.

They wanted him, a farmer, a former general, to be sent to a different world and do some kind of drastic changes that he and they yet know of. He could not fathom the reasoning behind this. Of why they would chose him and he asked that very question to her.

"Why me?"

"Because you have always had the ability to lead, to drive people forward, to create the impossible." A withered voice spoke behind Maximus and his family. The voice was familiar to him it sounded almost like...no it couldn't be.

Maximus turned around to see an old man with white beard and wrinkled face. Wearing a purple cloak and a white robe. He knew who this man was and he could not believe his eyes.

"Aurelius" Maximus whispered in shock. He soon shook out of stupar and quickly kneeled. The old man chuckled at his former generals action.

"I am not the Caesar anymore, Maximus, there is no need to kneel or bow before me." He said with wisened old voice. Maximus only lifted his head up, not standing from his position.

"You will always be a Caesar to me,sire." Aurelius smiled at Maximus's loyalty and sense of duty. He motioned him to stand before walking closer, Maximus quickly got his stool and motioned for him to sit. Aurelius shook his head with smile before sitting while Maximus got another stool to sit on.

"I am sorry I am late Lady Vasta I am not as young as I used to be." Aurelius said to the Goddess causing her to chuckle.

"Their is no need to apologize it would appear you arrived at a perfect time." She said with a smile.

"It would seem I have" Aurelius said with a nod. He looked to Maximus once with an approving smile.

"Maximus, do you know how I died?" His question caused Maximus to stiffen. He had guessed on how he died and that guess was confirmed in his dual.

"Commodus." He said with venom. Aurelius nodded with a sad look in eyes.

"Do you know why he killed me?" Now that he did not know anything about. He could never figure out why he killed him. Maximus shook his head causing Aurelius to smile.

"He killed me because I named you, Maximus, as my heir to the throne. As the next Caesar, the next leader, the next emperor of Rome." Maximus's eyes grew wide, along with his families. He was to be the next Emperor of Rome. Why? Why was he chosen to be the next Emperor. This is just as confusing as to why he was going to a different world.

"You do not know what you have do you, your gift. Maximus you've always had this incredible ability to direct the people emotions, to lead people into whatever you've planned and they loyally follow without question. You would have been one of Rome's most famous and memorable Caesar's Rome would have ever had. It is only my son's greed to have caused you and everyone involved so much hardship. For that I am sorry" Aurelius finished.

"Sire, you are not in fault with this it was Commodus's own choice to follow his greed and not his loyalty to his nation's leader nor to his father." Maximus said strongly getting a smile from Aurelius, Maximus's loyalty to his country and family has always been commendable.

"Now there is your sense of duty that I enjoy so much and that sense of duty will drive you to do what you must in your coming campaign." Maximus , even though he was still confused on why he was chosen and why Aurelius has such high hopes on him being a great ruler. His sense duty was beginning to drive him forward into this new mission and to complete it only on the reasoning to not disappoint Aurelius's expectations. Maximus looked to his wife to see what she had to say about the current situation. Her expression said it all that she accepted that he had to leave but she didn't need to like it. Though it would seem that there is something else she was hiding, something his instants is telling him to find out, Vesta noticed this.

"You did not tell him?" Selene's head shook causing the Goddess to sigh. Maximus looked to the Goddess from her reaction.

"What did she not tell me?" He asked now worried.

"The place we are sending you is in another world, another plane, realm, we can send you their but we can't take you out." Vesta said sullenly, eyes downcast.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that when you die from either old age or battle you will not return to his realm but to go to that worlds heavens." Maximus turned stiff again, he has been shocked stiff more times in this hour than he had his entire life. He wouldn't be able to see his wife or son again. Why? Why must he go through this again. Losing his family for a second time would simply destroy him completely. His hand curled to fist in his anger and frustration but his inner rage calmed when a hand touched his. It was Selene, her touch calmed him, but only for a moment. He knew that one day he would scream in agony from all that's transpired.

XXX

Vesta had left saying that Maximus had until midday before he had to be at the Gods Palace, Olympus. Aurelius stayed to show him the way when he was ready to leave. Maximus stood in the main room wearing a replica of his armor he wore to battle in his campaign in the north. Only instead of leather and some metal plates it was crafted using metal, a metal Vesta called Silverite. A durable, yet thinly light armor made up his armor, his sword was also made out of Silverite. There was gold colored plates on his wrist, legs, feet, and parts of his shoulders. It also made up his decorations of the two horse on his chest. These golden plates ,however, were not gold it is only colored mithril, yet another light yet durable metal. It surprised him that the metals did not hamper his movements of any sort compared to his regular leather armor. He also wore his winter cloak, same one he wore to the North with. On the advice of Vasta saying that the location that he will be sent will be having Winter very soon. He wore this armor as he spoke to his wife and son for the final time. Maximus kneels in front of his son.

"My son, you be good to your mother and crop the field just like I taught you. If you need help ask your mother for some advice but don't depend on her you must grow on your own." Maximus said to his son as the little boy nodded trying desperately to not cry. Though before Maximus could speak to his wife he told his son to go to his room, to which he obliged and left. Wanting to silently weep for his father.

Maximus stood and as she looked towards Selene he grew curious on what Selene wanted to say. As her eyes were screaming, wishing to speak but being held back by her own self control. Until her will could not hold any longer

"Maximus," She began,her voice was broken." Since you are going to another world with no chance of returning to us. I believe that if you meet someone that… you would be interested in being with that you should-"

"What!?" Maximus said in surprise, he could believe what she was suggesting.

"I will not break our vows Selene" He said holding onto his shoulders.

"And you won't be, when you arrive there you will be reborn meaning that all vows and former allegiances are gone. You have fulfilled your vows to the letter and I feel that I shouldn't cause you to live a life of loneliness hoping that you return but never will." She said as tears pore down from her eyes. Maximus did not know what to say he was to shocked. How many more times was he going to get shocked today before he could rest and actually think upon the current circumstances. She grabbed his hand causing him to look at her eyes.

"Maximus, I know this will be hard for you, and believe me it is devastating for me, but I want you to have some sort of peace in that world after you finished with everything. I want you to be able to a come home with someone who loves you as much as I and bares you a child or children for you to raise. Please, Maximus when you are there please keep in mind that you need some sort of happiness as well." Maximus did not respond he only hesitantly nodded, slowly. He gripped her hand once before giving her a kiss on the forehead before leaving with Aurelius.

XXX

In the thick forest filled with gargantuan trees and vines you would see a light glistening in the darkness of the night. The moon's illuminating rays only sparsely pierced the large branches and leaves. Revealing the muddy and wet ground riddled with animals tracks pointing towards all directions. Animals ranging from foxes and rabbits to wolves and wild boars. Yet among these tracks a set of markings of animals a man's boots was plastered on the mud. The footsteps in the mud were deep and strong telling any experienced tracker that the man was very heavy, either by his fat or armor, and that he was marching through the forest with a determined mind.

The tracks passed cut brushes, torn branches, and corpses of a small pack of wolves. Each killed with a swift stab to the head or neck. It would seem that the man disturbed the packs meal as a deer's leg was lying on the ground next to. A drag marks was seen leading out of the small clearing towards a mountain side. A mountain side with a small illuminated section.

Pass the large rocks and traitorous sliding stones a small camp fire can be seen. A slow turning leg of the venison was being turned by a human wearing decorated armor as he sat on a rock with a thick leather cloak over it for cushion. A large curved yet rectangular shield was laid next to him on his left with well crafted javelins resting on his right. A helmet with horse hair in a mohawk pattern was next to his feet.

Finally, he had been tracking this _humy_ for a while now. His tongue slide across his sharp carnivorous teeth. His clawed hand gripping his barbaric and crudely made wooden mace. He heard footsteps behind, he could smell them, it was more of his pack. A crooked smile grew on his large animalistic face. His excitement grew to much and he started... _laughing._

XXX

Maximus instinctively pulled out his gladius as he heard a very squeaky but very _animalistic_ laugh coming from the rocks in front of him. He heard more and more and more laughs. Soon the whole rock side was filled animalistic laughs. He sheathed his blade before grabbing his javelins putting one in the holster in his shield and the other in his ready to throw it the moment they showed themselves. He heard footsteps on his right then his left then behind him, they surrounded him. Readying his shield he used his senses to hear where one of them would attack from.

He heard a thunk behind him. The creature dropped down from the large rock.

He didn't leave anything else to thought. As soon as he turned he threw his javelin without looking, only using his memory of the spacing between the rock and his camp fire to guide him. He heard a cry of pain signally he had hit him but at that moment all of them pounced. Large thuds were sounding all around him. Pulling his sword out he quickly ran towards the direction of the wounded creature as it is the only open location.

As he got closer he studied it.

It was an ugly beast yet very small. No more four and half feet, barely reaching his chest. It was walking on two feet like a man but it was pure animal. It almost looked like a lycan, a half man half wolf creature but it looked more coyote than wolf. Stopping his thoughts he quickly stabbed the creature on its neck while it was pierced by the javelin on its gut. It did not resist as it breathed it last breaths.

He turned and found more of these beasts. He counted quickly and found that there were twelve of them. To many for him to fight head on. He noticed some had crude leather armor and wooden weapons causing the danger level to increase. They also spoke somehow in a laughter mixed voice.

" _By the gods, that is the most annoying sound I could ever hear."_ Maximus thought as he tried to block out the Gnolls noise. Though as they watched each other another dropped in from a rock in the far back.

" _Make that thirteen_ " He thought but as the new gnoll appeared he was different. Different as in it wore metal shoulder plates and some metal plates over some areas of it body. It was also larger, about his size which was 5'11, and it carried a very large battle axe. It licked it's sharp teeth in anticipation of his possible meal.

" _That one must be the leader of this pack"_ He watched the 'large' gnoll walk to the front of his pack. Staring at each other, looking for the slightest moment of weakness for either one to strike but Maximus was no fool. He knew he could not defeat them in honor bound combat but thanks to his time as a gladiator. It taught him that survival by battle must be won with tricks or teamwork. Since he was alone teamwork was out of the question.

" _Trickery it is then"_ Being in a new world causes him to know very little of how anything of this world works. These beasts attest to the differences between his world and this one but if there's one thing Rome teaches its people, especially its soldiers, it's adapting.

Maximus ran through a crevice large enough for him between two large boulders. The gnolls quickly followed. Maximus new by simply looking at the rocks he could see the difficulty someone or something would have climbing it. He surmised that if he had the high ground he would be able to take them out one by one. So he looked for a steep rocky slope for him to climb when he found one, thanks to his armor being very light, he was able to leap across some of the larger rocks to reach the top. The gnolls were barely halfway. He noticed a group of five was on the left and they were very close to each other. Finding a large rock he pushed it off the flat ground down the slope causing a small rockalanche. The rocks crushed the five gnolls as they squealed in pain. Now there were only eight of them.

When the first gnoll arrived at the top he quickly swung at Maximus with a hatchet looking axe only to have it blocked by Maximus's shield. The shock from hitting shield stunned him for second. A second that costed him as Maximus stabbed him between his ribs and too his heart, years of training and experience giving him the advantage in this skirmish. The gnoll fell back dead. Retracting the blade he turned to find two gnolls, one carried a small sword and the other a two-handed hammer. The gnoll with the hammer swung first, Maximus blocked with his shield. He did not flinch when the hammer hit instead he stepped forward so he could shield slam the gnoll down the slope. Hitting the rocks as he fell down leaving him dead as he rolled to the bottom. Maximus then attacked with his blade; the gnoll tried to parry but to only have his sword shatter and his neck slit open. Now there is six.

Maximus stared at his mithril sword.

" _Vesta was not exaggerating when she said mithril was incredibly strong...plus the blessings I received from the gods help as well."_ He thought but was interrupted when five gnolls arrived and began growl at him. The last gnoll that was still climbing the slope was the leader as he much slower than the rest because of the heavier armor and larger weapon he carried. Ignoring the leader for now he focused on the five gnolls that were currently concaving him. His back was to the edge of the flat ground mere inches from falling down the rocky side. The gnolls believed that they were at the advantage because of both their numbers and positioning giving them the courage to charge.

Their advantage proved to be false.

The first gnoll that attacked was dodged and with his momentum caused him to slip and fall down the cliff. The second was also dodged but he did not fall like his brother; Maximus stabbed him on the back of the leg. He then ducked under a mace from an angry gnoll. Maximus, still in his crouch, turned and stabbed him in the stomach then pulled up word to its heart killing him. After pulling the blade out he did a 180 turn and slammed his shield against another gnoll; making the gnoll step back in pain. Giving Maximus another chance to strike as he stabbed his leg. The gnoll kneeled down exposing his neck allowing Maximus, with a powerful swing, to cut off his head. He turned with his sword and shield at the ready. Two gnolls remained one was unharmed while the other was gripping his leg, red liquid seeping out of his hand.

The unharmed gnoll charge with his axe raised high. The general ignored him,easily moving past the attacking gnoll, charging the wounded gnoll with a shield slam. The wounded gnoll was knocked on his back, hands spread out. Maximus used this opportunity to press his foot on the gnolls chest and stab into his heart. A battle cry sounded from behind him as the last gnoll again wildly charged at him. Maximus continued to stare forward until the very last moment as he turned stabbing at the creature's chest with shield raised to block the axe. Gnoll fell limp on the ground leaving Maximus catching some of his breath until his breathing hitched as his instinct were telling him he in danger.

A moment, sensing something behind him, he ducked down under a giant axe that was swung to cut his head.

It was the pack leader and he was angry, very angry. Maximus raised his shield in his defence as the beast gripped his axe harder, eyes narrowing dangerously. The gnoll began to use his axe as a spear and strike at Maximus in a distance. He used his shield to bounce the gnolls attack back. As an opening appeared Maximus moved forward his sword swinging. Instead of fighting the gnoll dodged most of his attacks getting nicked by the tip of his blade once or twice but the wounds were not threatening.

" _This beast is much smarter than the rest. Just like the barbarian leaders back in my home world; smart, skilled, and cunning."_ he complimented. Knowing that this creature was smarter than the rest he needed to defeat him quickly or the beast may find a way to defeat him; time for any tactician is a great boon. Putting faith in his sword's durability, he swung and parried blow for blow against the beast. Surprisingly the beast weapon did not break or chip. It was then, as he was examining the weapon, that he noticed the strange and slightly glowing marking on the weapon. He did not know what they meant but if he had to guess it was some sort of enchantment an enchantment that stops it from being destroyed so easily like the others.

Where this creature obtained an enchanted weapon he did not know but that was not important. What was important is that he now has an enchanted weapon and he's willing to use against him.

The beast swung with his axe at his head causing Maximus to ducked. He was about to stab the creature in the side but before he could the gnoll shoulder butted him knocking him on the ground. The gnoll leaped on him, axe forgotten, and began to use his clawed hands as a means to finish him off. His claws only slide off his armor as they struggled until the gnoll slashed at his neck. He missed his neck but his clawed hand still slashed the lower part of his jaw. Maximus grunted to the pain while the gnoll laughed. Maximus in his anger pushed the gnoll off him, blood covered his neck, the bottom part of his face and the top part of his armor. Maximus roared as he charged at the gnoll barehanded. He grabbed the bottom part of the gnoll thigh and began to lift him in a surprising amount of strength. The gnoll was now dangling over him, his arms flailing about, and as he secured his grip on the gnoll he began walking towards the slope.

" **Victoria!"**

Maximus screamed as he threw the beast down the slope. He watched as he bounced off rocks, getting hit in every location imaginable. He knew he was going to die as all his bones would be broken when he would arrive at the bottom but it didn't. As the gnoll finally stopped at the bottom he began to stand up, wobbling in his pain, turning to look up at Maximus's surprised face.

"HUMAN!" The gnoll scream in a deranged and raspy voice; Maximus's eye's grew wide at it.

"I have you scent! I will kill you! With stronger pack! Remember name! Remember! Name is HOGGAR!" Hoggar screamed as he limped away from the mountain side. Maximus watched as he left, this Hoggar, allowing himself some breath of fresh air and to allow his wounds to heal.

The bleeding had stopped and it had already began closing up completely. The blessings given to him seem to, again, be very helpful. As it finished healing it left a three line-like scars on his jaw. Yet another battle scar for his body. Maximus collected his weapon and shield so that he may collect his spoils of war. Scavenging the corpses of the gnolls he found anything from random pieces of cloth, parchment, herbs and many other things. Though the most important things he found was currency two handful of copper coins, thirteen silver coins and a single gold coin and the discarded axe of Hoggar. Maximus was able to make a comfortable enough bed of leather from the armor of the gnolls. It smelled disgusting but he slept in worse. The fire crackling next to him, his sword in hand, shield on his left side and his recovered javelin on his right side as he stared at the stars to give him some peace but they only were a glaring reminder of his circumstance. All the stars were different in this world. The constellations that told stories of the gods were nowhere to be seen.

He sighed and closed his eyes. He needs rest and staring at the stars were not helping. He needed be at full strength for what is soon to come, whatever it may be, but he knows one thing is certain. War is going to be involved.

For War, war never changes and it never stops.

….but he hopes that one day peace could actually be a possibility.

 **XXX**

 **Ahhhh hope you enjoyed. I bet many of you noticed some unexplained things and of course I will explained them in another chapter. I don't really like their being plot hole's so I make sure it will get explained but if there's one please tell me so i can one day fix it :D.**

 **If any of you have criticism, please try and make it constructive. Also if you enjoy my story please either fave/follow/review or check in once in awhile to see if there' an update.**

 **Have a nice day! :D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow, I mean wow, I did not expect my story to get so many faves and follows, hell this story has almost half the amount of faves and follows my other story has that one has 5 chapters! This one only has one chapter WOW.**

 **Though i did not get any reviews, strange. Please review! Not forcing just suggesting :D. Hopefully this chapter will get ya in reviewing mood. Also sorry for the long wait, I had trouble planning on how I would introduce…. Stuff but i think i nailed it on this attempt, attempt number 4 XD.**

 **Have fun reading !**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

 **XXX**

Maximus collected his equipment and other essentials early in the morning before continuing his journey. His camp was now miles behind him as he walked through the forest. His feet sloshing in the mud causing the bottom part of his armor to become dirty. He ignored it for the sake of finding some form of human life. He knew for certain that they were humans nearby for he discovered a pile of human looking bones beside a tree as he passed through the woods. He had looked at the bones for a few more moments to find a means of death but he could not find one. It's bones were either broken or missing as signs of animals scavenging his corpse for food were evident. However, now knowing that there were humans nearby made him more determined in getting out of the forest.

Pushing apart a brush a large clearing showed itself to him finding himself at the end of the forest. Hearing rushing water he searched and found a large river streaming down to his left. He grabbed his leather skinned water bag and gathered the fresh water from the stream before drinking it. It's refreshing taste swirled in his mouth as he sat next to the river for a short rest before continuing on his journey.

He layed down on his side, reveling in the beautifully sunny day but his peace was interrupted. As the ground began to shake. His first thought was a small earthquake but it was quickly debunked as its trembling was not coming from the earth and it was too even. As it continued his mind began going through his memories as it felt incredibly familiar to him.

" _A war march. That's what it was"_ , he thought, finally recognizing the tremors..

Maximus gathered his bag and began to frantically look around for any sign of a war march. He noticed a natural dam of rocks stopping most of a waterfall, the same waterfall that was creating the river. His instinct screamed at him to look over the dam of stone. Maximus quickly jogged up the river and then climbed the small slope of rocks until he reached the top. Getting a good footing on the rock under him he removed his helmet and peaked over the edge.

"Impossible…" Maximus whispered as he stared at the inconceivable sight.

Dead. He saw the dead, walking, wearing armor, wielding swords and bows. Standing in formation, there bony and inexpressible faces of horror preparing for war. A man wearing masterfully crafted metal plating armor, mounted on a skeletal horse, rode in front of the army. His face was covered by a intimidating skeletal helmet as he moved up and down the line staring at the undead warriors daring them to step out of line. Maximus looked further down the army as he saw more grotesque monstrosities. Giant undead creatures standing at almost 15 feet tall and 8 feet wide. They looked like they were woven out of dozens upon dozens of human corpses. They had four arms, each embedded with a either a hook or a hatchet for a hand, their mouths were slacking open revealing dozens of sharp human-like teeth, and their chests were busted open revealing their intestines. Intestines that appear to be functioning even when the skin had been ripped off.

An opening among the ranks appeared allowing a group of people, he could not tell if they were human men or otherwise, wearing robes decorated with small skulls of animals and blood of their victims. They each wore a goat skull on their heads like a helmet, all except one. This man was taller than the rest ,standing at around 6'4. The tall robed man's face was covered as he wore a strange but death related headdress as he led the robbed men to the warrior riding the horse.

He watched the robed man give some sort of order to the warrior. The interaction finished with the warrior saluting as the robed men walked back through the undead army. Maximus eyes grew wide once again as he noticed the large, menacing, dark and decriped metal fortress in the distance that the robed men were walking towards too. The fortress sat on a small island in the middle of a giant lake. The waters were black as if corrupted by some dark powers.

" _Is this what I must face? Armies of the dead seeking the destruction of the living."_ Maximus thought as he put his helmet back on before starting to move off the rock side into a small crevice between the rocks, allowing him to get through without the undead warriors noticing. After a few minutes of struggling to fit his shield through the crevice he finally got to the other side. Sprinting between trees and rocks he was able to get past the undead army without notice. As he left the safety of the tree he was hiding behind, a few miles away from the undead army, he discovered a paved dirt road leading towards an unknown destination.

He contemplated for a moment on where the path could lead. He knew that roads would lead to civilization but if this place was controlled by the undead where could he go to for safety? Though he then analyzed the area around him seeing the lake on one side and an unclimbable mountain terrain on the other. His only choice was either following the path up or down back towards the undead army. Between those two choices his decision was obvious.

Putting his equpipment rapped in the thick leather he got from the gnolls on his shoulder he began trekking towards the unknown. As he did so he took the opportunity of peace to think upon his new discoverings, not the undead but the level of advanced weaponry they had. The armor the undead warrior wore was impressive and the fortress looked as if it was made out of raw metal, thought to be impossible in the Empire, now he finds a paved dirt road. All this would imply that the people who live here have advanced to the level of or even higher than the Roman Empire. If that is true then he would find things more interesting than what he originally thought.

Maximus found himself in a fork on the road. He looked to his right and saw metal gates in the distance with stone and metal crosses in the dirt behind the gates. His mind digested the image until concluding he did not want to go through there. It was most definitely a graveyard. As he began to walk to the right that had only trees and small grassy mounds to greet him he thought upon the discovery of the use of crosses.

" _Is there some form of christianity here?"_ Maximus mused in thought as he remembered the religion back in Rome. It was growing but not the point that would challenge the identity of the Roman Gods. Many of the poorer people worshiped Christ since many feel that the gods abandoned them. Admittedly, he was not a religious person so he did not know much about this topic. He hadn't even truly believed in the Roman Gods until seeing them in person.

His musing was cut short when he heard the tell tale sign of battle, the clashing of blades, the screams of horror and pain. Maximus sprang to action and ran towards one of the larger mounds. When he reached the top he saw a city of, maybe, a quarter the size of rome. A very impressive feat for anyone's people. He watched undead warriors entering the city with crude siege weapons that looked like some sort of catapult. Its wheels were spiked and blooded but from what he could tell it was made for easy maneuverability as it continued using…" _Are my eyes deceiving me?"_ he thought in horror as he watched the meat wagons use the corpses of the dead be shot to their enemy with destructive ease. Watching this is when he heard the screaming, _human_ screaming.

He looked towards the city the yells of men and women fighting for their lives was evident in every direction he looked. Flames were blaring from homes, corpses were lying on the edge of the walls and flying creature that looked like large bats shaped humans were swooping down picking up individuals before letting them go to fall to their deaths. Maximus determined to save as many people from this city as possible sprinted down the mound and through the road till he reached the bridge connecting the dirt road to the warring city. Maximus readied his shield, both javelins and his sword, his helmet fastened on his chin and adjusted for the best possible vision. He breathed in a deep breath before letting it out, slowly.

He took a step forward then another and another and another, soon he was sprinting towards the city. Two meat wagons each one manned by two men wearing thick black robes. There were four Skeletal warriors, two wield two handed swords, another had a sword and shield while the final held a large bow. They stood in front of the wagons guarding them from any sort of attack from the front. Never expecting an attack from the rear. He charged at one of the robed men from behind as he was loading the meat wagon with a corpse. The force from his charge pushed him towards one of the wagons spikes piercing his chest. His fellow robed acolyte heard his scream and turned around to only find a blade stabbed into his heart. The undead warriors and the other acolytes did not notice. Their minds only filled with the need of destruction of the city. Maximus charged again and was rewarded with the same result of an impaled acolyte. The second acolyte was on the other side of the meat wagon but the distance was short enough for Maximus to stab at the man's throat. This is when the undead noticed their acolyte masters dieing. They turned to find maximus wiping his bloodied blade on their robes.

Maximus readied himself with his shield in front and his sword at his side. One of the broadsword(two handed weapon) wielding undead lunged forward and was blocked with Maximus' shield. An arrow then wooshed by his head from the skeletal archer. Maximus pushed the undead being off him before striking him at the heart but it would seem it proved to be futile as the wound did not kill him, it only made him angry. Maximus changed its grip on his gladius before pushing it up cutting off its arm. He swirled the blade back in place in his hand then cut the undead's head off as it was stunned from losing its arm. As the undead fell he noticed the archer preparing another arrow. Maximus raised his shield feeling the thunk of the arrow hitting the wood he lowered his defence. To reveal an undead swinging his short short to his head. He narrowly dodged the swing but before he could steady himself the other undead swung his broadsword down. Maximus raised his shield blocking the attack. As the blade bonked off the shield Maximus quickly rose with his sword aimed for its neck, cutting most of it off. The undead's head dangled on his shoulders as it stumbled back. Maximus then turned and shield bashed the remaining melee zombie. He countered with its own shield bash, crashing their shields together in a battle of was surprised by the undead beings amount of strength because of the lack of muscle it showed on its body.

Thier strength, however, can be easily defeated by cunning.

Pushing once again with his shield allowed an opening to its legs. Taking the chance he stabbed its legs immobilizing it from moving. The former gladiator finished his it off as it kneeled on the stone bridge with its head being cut off.

He felt something hit him from behind as he turned he noticed an arrow on the ground. It had bounced off his durable armor. The archer readied another arrow free from the possibility of hitting his allies. He released the arrow and Maximus dodged as he charged. His last arrows was released hitting his shield before getting hit with a shield bash pushing it to the ground. Slashing at his head killed it almost immediately if the lack of movement from it told anything. A growl from his right caught his attention as the undead whose head was detached from the rest of his body laid on the ground. The head was growling and moving but it body was limp.

" _Their head is their weakness."_ The former general concluded. Cutting off their head is easier than most of their limbs as it seemed that the undead favored to armor their body other than their heads, ironically. Though there were a few who wore helmets that seemed smarter than most as they were faster and quicker to react to attacks but they were still easily defeated. He had noticed this killing any undead soldier he encountered as he went through the city after sabotaging the siege weapons on the bridge. Moving through the side alleys, ruined homes and corpses of the dead; who were either the defenders of the city or the undead warriors.

As he continued closer and closer to the center of the city he began to see banners in bright blood red with the crest of a flame began to appear on the stone walls. The same crest that the city guard wore on there tabords. The fallen soldiers wore either full plate, leather, or, strangely enough, cloth armor all colored in blood red; hiding their own essence splattered on their bodies.

The roars of battle was getting louder and louder telling Maximus of a nearing skirmish. He readied himself before entering a small passageway between two standing walls, it was barely large enough for his shield to pass through. Each step he took the more gruesome details of the sounds of war began to surface. The grinding of metals before a cry of pain from a wounded warrior. The sloshing of stabs with bloodied coughs. It was filling his ears and mind as he finally reached the other end, his eyebrows rose slightly.

The city guard was scattered in small groups swinging wildly but with a strange mixture tempered control at the undead. Holy priest were healing wounded warriors in combat to that they may continue the fight. There were archers using what looked like a hand held ballista in their hands as they rained arrows down in relative ease. Clothed soldiers using magic of flame to burn the walking corpses to ashes. The soldiers were fighting valiantly without any sort of fear. However, what the former Roman general noticed was that because of their barbaric, in his opinion, yet effective tactics were working in smaller intervals. It seemed more suited for fighting against living enemies who can succumb to fatigue and fear. It's useless against an emotionless army almost three times their size that have unlimited stamina and strength.

HIs body was screaming for him to charge. To fight along with them and push the undead back. However, he couldn't move something or _someone_ holding him there. Whispering into his mind to watch the battle to learn how the undead and the living fought in large battles. So that he may be able to assist them with tactics of his own.

"Die! You undead filth! We are the Scarlet Crusade, holy warriors of the all mighty light! We will purge your corrupted bodies from this city and claim it for the light!" A steel plated warrior screamed. His was like the other warrior only difference is that he wore a sash over his right shoulder. Signifying himself as an officer. The officer wielded a large two handed weapon glowing slightly yellow. With every swing of his blade two undead warriors fell, their armor cut with ease, laughing maniacally with every kill.

Maximus looked at the religious zealot slaughter the undead. His laugh brought unpleasant shivers down his spine. " _Warriors of the light,"_ he thought," _they must of lost themselves in faith when the undead began to rise."_ Maximus finished in contemplation as he watched the Scarlet Crusade surprisingly pushed the undead. It would seem their tactics are not useless against them afterall.

"ABOMINATION!" A man screamed in horror. One of the large creatures he earlier saw broke through a stone wall with a horrifying human-like roar. Maximus saw the creature charge towards the warriors, crashing through them with little effort killing them in the process. Until it stopped standing before the officer.

"It is high time for your kind to die, you filthy offspring of death!" The officer charged with no fear as he roared towards the abomination. Maximus eyebrows rose as the man seemed to duplicate with some form of magic. The now four officers attacked the beast forcing it to divide his attention between the them, all the while getting pelted by arrows from crossbowmen. When the abomination finally struck one of the officers it disappeared in a puff of smoke. An illusion is what they were and a very good one. When the first illusion fell the other two fell a short time later. Now only the officer stood alone and without hesitation he charge the beast by leaping into the air with a surprising amount of strength. He crashed into the creature his sword going through the beast brain pushing it back. As the beast fell the officer fell along with it but he was held steady for his grip on the blade was tight. The officer then twisted his blade before pulling it out with a roar of victory that his fellow soldiers soon followed.

Maximus shook out of stupor before standing up, prepared to announce himself to the Scarlets but before he could he noticed one of those large bat swoop down towards the officer. The Scarlets reveling in their victory did not notice the creature. Without second thought Maximus grabbed one of his javelins from his shield and threw it towards the gargoyle. It struck it the second before it could grab the officer. As it fell to the ground in pain, the scarlet warriors were momentarily stunned before two of the melee warriors quickly went to finish off the gargoyle. The Scarlet warriors turned and finally noticed Maximus. They stared at him intently; mistrust was apparent in their eyes but they were hesitant in taking any sort action.

With a scream the flying beast was killed. The warriors pulled the javelin out of it chest and presented it to the officer. He inspected the ornate yet very durable spear before grabbing it and pointing it towards Maximus.

"Usually we would have arrested you for being an unknown in this battlefield but seeing as you clearly fight the undead I might ignore protocol." The officer said, his voice smooth with an accent Maximus had not heard before, as he walked towards Maximus inspecting his armor more closely. His eyes and movements told the former general that he was suspicious of him. Even though he had saved his life a few moments earlier but he could not blame him as he could easily be spy sent infiltrate their ranks. The man stopped in front of him, their eyes locked, sizing each other up. The Scarlet lifted the spear placing it between them.

"This spear is very well crafted and very beautiful. Your armor is both exotic and powerful, your weapons are no different. You scream of an ignorant foreigner yet you're dressed for war. If I would have to guess you came from the south, probably from Stormwind. Your nobles were known to be more pig headed than ours, I see no difference with you. You wear expensive armor and weapons and think you can take on anything. Coming to the north to prove yourself and sate your ego." The man concluded stabbing the spear to the ground in front of him. "I thank you for saving my life but you will surely be liability if you stay here. Leave now and return to your home and find some other way to increase your arrogance." He finished, Maximus had to admit that his assumption was well crafted and probable and would have been true if he was from this realm.

However, he was not from this world and he did not take being insulted very well,no matter how subtle it might be.

"You speak with an educated tone with well crafted thoughts and words. Telling me you're well educated and know what would be right or wrong. Yet you drown yourself in faith and zealotry; letting it consume you. You let it cover your grief, digging it dipper and dipper into your heart allowing it to boil. Never accepting what you lost. If you never accept your grief you will doom your heart and mind; making you easily controlled. You will become a mindless drone being manipulated by anyone you view as a being closely related to the light. A fool you are, all of you are fools." Maximus finished, he knew that insulting their religious teaching would surely cause hostilities. However, he needs to show them that he will not ignore insults nor open hostility but instead to meet them head on without hesitation.

The Scarlets were silent for a few moments before many grew angry and began to walk towards Maximus in a threatening posture. The officer, however, stood still, watching Maximus, his eyes with a contemplating look.

"How dare you! Insulting his faithful heart, our faithful heart! The light has protected us, saved us, and is helping us to purge the undead from our fallen kingdom, Lordaeron. You have no right to say those words and by the teachings of the light, your blasphemous words will not go unpunished!" A priest roared as he began to cast a Smite spell.

"Kedar, stop your casting!" The officer told the priest receiving a wide eyed look.

" But sir, his words- blasphemy is what it is. He can't-"

"Cease your nagging, I insulted the man first and he merely returned it in full." He said signally the rest of the soldiers to stand down; they all reluctantly lowering their weapons. The officer turned back towards Maximus. He removed his helmet revealing his blond military cut hair, blue eyes, his ragged blond beard, a stern and scarred face. The term for his appearance would be ' ruggedly handsome'.

"My name is Keldyon Sightsheild, Senior Sergeant of the Scarlet Crusade and former minor noble of Lordaeron, who are you?" He asked. Maximus lowered his head in respect before responding.

"My name is Maximus Meridius Decimus, former Commander of the Kingdom of Stormwind."

Maximus lied smoothly, they would not believe him if he told them who or where he is truly from. Remembering the kingdom from the south Keldyon spoke of, he decided to play the role of a former commander from Stormwind. He did not want to call himself a General or Keldyon would be more suspicious than he already is and see through his lie.

Thankfully, Keldyon did not notice his lie instead he lowered his head in respect but with narrowed eyes.

" A former commander you say, have you led any attacks against the barbarous orcs or the undead? " Keldyon said calmly. Maximus did not know what an 'orc' was but hearing the word 'barbarous' gave him an idea of what they were.

"Yes, I have lead multiple encounters against those beasts, pushing them back farther and farther away from the people. However, my experience with the undead is minor as most of the undead in Stormwind had already been killed." Maximus half lied to the Sergeant. He might not have had fought against orcs but he most surely battled against barbarians of his own. His experience with the undead was even more limited save for the few bouts they had earlier the day. Keldyon nodded at his words before he began to rub his bearded chin in thought. He began to look back at his men and then towards the ruins of city and going battle. He sighed slightly before returning his gaze to Maximus

" I have no way of knowing what you say is true but you seem like an honest man, your remark about our faith could attest to that." He said as Maximus nodded in agreement but as he did so he also began fully understand the depth of his lie. These people know of the Kingdom he connected himself to and can easily send word to them of him, asking for information or confirmation of his status. Well, they could if any of them survived the battle that is.

" You see, Maximus, our current superiors are new bloods, fresh out of training from Hearthglen or Tyr's Hand. They were originally ordered to supervise the rebuilding of Andorhal while General Abbendis returned to Hearthglen for an emergency meeting. However, two days after she left," Maximus's eyes grew slightly wide before he quickly controlled himself. " _She"_ he thought in surprise, " _a female general"._ Maximus was by no means sexist but in Roman values, as well as his values, women are not allowed to join the military because of their many domestic duties. Though he did not underestimate women in battle, oh no he learned from that mistake.

In his early days of being in the Empire's legions fighting against the barbarians when he was a lowly Munifex. He had battled dozens of women in those years. In the first battle he had against one he had underestimated her so severely that he nearly died because of it.

When he used his strength against her she used it against him. When he would use his speed, she would use it against him. When he did anything she would use it against him and give him another wound on his body. It was not until he was on his back, shield thrown away from him, weapon taken from him and having the barbarian women pinning him down reading her weapon, his sword, to cut him down. Did he begin to realize that underestimating women or anyone would cost him dearly. If not for an archer shooting an arrow to her heart he would have been killed that day. It was also the same day he began to both respect and cherish having archers at his back.

"... the undead attacked in full force in all directions. The first few hours in the defence of Andorhal was pure anarchy as the young officers didn't know how to respond to having an army of undead, three times the size of their force break open the gate from all sides. We lost little more than half of our entire army, almost 1,600 men out of our 3,000, in a matter of moments. Most junior officers have been rallying any men or women they could find to fight back and push the undead out of city but are small parties aren't doing any good." Keldyon paused for a moment as some shambling undead warriors walked towards them. The warriors readied their weapons and quickly charged. Thankfully the undead were small in number compared to their force and were quickly killed.

" As you can see," he said removing his sword from an undead's chest," the undead can easily infiltrate the inner part of the city even with 1,400 Crusaders at its defence. " He finished looking back to Maximus.

" I have been leading my group to the center of the city where are main encampment is located and along the way collect any other groups I can. In attempt to rally our forces scattered around the city." He said placing his sword on his back.

" Why tell me this?" Maximus said simply as he understood why he would tell others crusaders what he plans to do but telling him specifically along with what he said earlier insinuates that it has to for a very important reason.

" We need someone to rally behind, someone to lead us effectively and with experience. The reason we are even this defeated is because the officers were too inexperienced to react. Letting the junior officers do what they pleased to defend the city and as you can see it did not work very well." He said as he pulled digged through his bag that was located on his waist. After a moment he had discovered what he wanted and pulled it out. It was a rectangle made out of stone with a blood red symbol on it. It had a small blood red cloth going through it at its edge. He walked closer to Maximum lifting it by its cloth near his face.

" You say you are a former commander of Stormwind, someone who has led at least a dozen different campaigns against the enemies of your kingdom. If what you said is true, you might be able to effectively lead us to victory or at least kill as many undead as we can before we are destroyed." He looked at the small stone tablet.

"This is the mark of a crusader, the mark of warrior that fights for the light. You might not have strong faith in it but that does not matter as someone in the heavens has led you to us, someone who wishes us to have a chance for victory. Take it, and become a member of the crusade. I can not give you your former rank officially but I will follow your lead. If anyone asks what your rank is simply say simple say Senior Sergeant and for your armor say that you're one of the legionary. As your helmet looks quite similar to theirs." Maximus looked at the tablet for a few moments before he grabbed it, running his fingers over the symbol. Ignoring the interesting information of Legionnaires in their army.

"Put it around your neck and stuff it under your armor." Keldyon instructed and Maximus quickly followed it. As he did so Keldyon turned to his party of soldiers, a party of 46. The soldiers had faces of confusion and shock, some had expressions of outrage probably because of Maximus's lack of faith in the light.

"You all heard what I said and I know you question the logic behind it. Now, before some of you scream out saying that he might be a spy or that he might be lying, let me tell you this. We will die either way, by either if he's lying or if he was spy and even if he didn't come we would all be dead. We all know it would've happened eventually in the battle but we never give up hope, that is something we all agree on and have been taught to do since the beginning of this war." Keldyon spoke getting sober nods of agreement concerning their current predicament.

"However, if what he said is true and he truly is a commander from stormwind, then we might have a chance. He'd be able to rally our forces and put up a strong defence against the undead and maybe, with the light at our side, can win this fight. So warriors of the Crusade, servants of the light, purifier of the darkness, what say you! Do we let the waves of shadow consume us or do we stand and let the light flow through us making an unending ember of purifying flame. Burning all who are unholy, what say you!"

"We fight till the end! We fight to purge the unholy! We fight for the righteous light!" The forty-six crusaders screams simultaneously. Chanting one of the many quotes of their order. Keldyon turned towards Maximus. The new crusader was stoic and calm but was rigged enough to pounce at any moment notice. The light from the sun glistened off his shining plates slightly blinding him by light. The warmth from the rays grazed his body giving him a sense of peace. The light was on their side and they have sent a champion as their avatar.

' _Yes, he will lead us to victory, he will save us from doom. The light has decreed it!"_ Keldyon thought with faith and determination.

"Maximus Decimus Meridius, I, Keldyon Sightsheild, and my warriors are yours command as you see fit. What are your orders?" Keldyon said with a bow followed by his men.

Maximus looked at the burning city and raging conflict before looking at his small ragtag group of soldiers. It was nowhere near the legions he commanded at home but it was enough for now, he thought. He looked at their eyes that were shining with fury, determination, and courage. Ready to combat the undead and show them that the living can be defeat the dead.

" _Yes, they will be enough. Enough to change this battle in our favor."_ Maximus nodded.

Maximus signalled them to follow him as they began their march. Heading towards the screams of men and women, the howls and moans of undead monsters, to what many would call their death.

 **XXX**

 **So, you guys were surprised I put him in with the Crusade, I bet you all thought he was in Stormwind cause of Hoggar huh?**

 **Originally it was stormwind but then a friend of mine said she didn't like the women I was pairing Maximus with and the reason why was actually kind of eye opening really. So I changed the person he was going to be with and that changed the entire story. I actually like it how it is now than before :D. By the way the women I was going to pair him with was Jaina Proudmoore now its someone else.**

 **Hopefully, you guys like the whole scarlet crusade story arc idea as I rarely see any sort of Crusade fanfics out there.**

 **If any of you have criticism, please try and make it constructive. Also if you enjoy my story please either fave/follow/review or check in once in awhile to see if there' an update.**

 **Have a nice day! :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: While in Anderhal, do what romans do!**

 **Hello! Long time no speak!...or Read?**

 **Ok, At this point there is no point in apologizing in my lateness for updating. Though I have come up with a make shift schedule meaning when this story gets updated my other story will get an update and vise versa. Though the update will be months apart.**

 **Plus, this one was very tough to write, had to put in at least two hours of research into it, that might not sound like much but have you ever just sat down on your computer, look up stuff, make a note and not stop for two hours until you got everything need?... in retrospect some of you might have so you feel my pain :P.**

 **Also, DivineDemon1, thank you for your support and review :D as well as everyone else's. I always enjoy seeing people actually like my work I always worry that its horrible and its all incoherent ; /.**

 **But let's skip all my angst and just go straight to the story :D. Hope you all enjoy! :)**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Gladiator or World of Warcraft**

 **XXX**

In one of the many heavens of Earth, the Roman Gods spoke.

"It would seem he already has a following."

"Haha, the mortal, actually, has a gift for it. I thought it was just some unexpected luck!"

" I don't see why you would be surprised Mars, we had seen his power of influence during his time as a gladiator."

Jupiter, King of all Gods, sat on his golden throne at the center of the back wall in the large, cylinder, shaped chamber. The seats of the other gods were shaped in a crescent from his own and beside him would be where the other major Roman gods would sit, God of the likes of Neptune, the God of the Sea, and Mars, the God of War. While the minor gods, such as Bellona, the Goddess of War, and Vulcan, the God of the Forge, sat above Jupiter in seats located on the second or third levels of the chamber. Jupiter stroked his brown,well groomed, but white specked beard in thought. Wearing a white and heavily decorated robe covered with gold and other pieces of jewelry. Neptune wore his blue, leather crafted, armor, contrasting his tanned complexion but complementing his clean shaven face and sleek figure, as he stared at Mars with a raised eyebrow. Mars, in his black and red, heavily, plated armor that covered him from head to toe, allowing only his blood red eyes to be clearly seen, rested his left elbow on his chairs armrest while leaning his face into his closed fist.

" Influence? The guy just killed a bunch of slaves in a very spectacle manner and gained the mindless praises of the crowd. If that's what influence is I should've taken the seat as the King of Gods ages ago." Neptune pinched the bridge of his nose at Mars's boasting.

"Yet again you lack the perception to see that the mere fact that he had _gained_ enough praise and love from the Roman people, by "spectacularly killing a bunch slaves", to the point that he even rivaled the _Emperor's_ own influence!" The Sea God responded sternly causing Mars to merely scoff.

"That child was no leader, nor was he even fit to the lick boots of any of the Emperor's before him. Smothering his father and blaming his death on another, he is a coward in every sense of the word." Mars roared heatedly as he slammed his right fist down on the handrest.

"Calm yourself, Mars, we all know your opinion on Commodus. Also, Neptune stop antagonizing my son, right now we must focus on the mortal General's actions and see if he would need any of our assistance." Mars groaned in annoyance at his father's words.

"Why do we even need to keep watch over him? He did what we wanted him to do. With him in Azeroth, we can finally regain all the power that blasted _Jesus Christ_ and his father took from us." Jupiter glanced at Mars but said nothing.

Maximus did indeed, essentially, already complete his end of the bargain. The entire tale of him being "destined to go fight" was a complete ploy on their part. They simply needed a scapegoat to enter Azeroth for their own purposes. Though, they were impressed that Maximus had not only opened a temporal rift between Earth and Azeroth but also succeeded in surviving the trip towards the other side. They had tried dozens of times before and only one other had succeeded in surviving the trip. Sadly, said mortal somehow discovered the truth of our plan and, with feeling wronged in some way because of it, began to stop spreading _our_ teachings. Instead, he had discovered the current major belief among the humans in Azeroth, The Light, and with that he covered the entire continent with its holy control stopping the Roman Gods from entering the world, entirely. Not only that, but with that bitch Goddess of the Moon, Elune, watching over the Western Continent and along with those masquerading titans to the north, they had stopped any sort of way to enter the world without causing a war between the Gods. However, with the many recent wars against the demonically controlled orcs and created undead, it has made a dark _bubble,_ of sorts, stopping any sort of light from entering specific areas in Azeroth and in those areas the Roman Gods would and were able to send _missionaries_ to spread their influence. These _bubbles_ would reject or kill any of those who are heavily afflicted to the Holy attribute. However, those who are between both Holy and Shadow, such as the Roman and Greek Gods, can safely enter or exit, whenever they wish.

"We do not want the same mistake to occur a second time. If Maximus discovered the truth of why we sent him away he will sever ties with us completely." Jupiter finished then stood up from his chair. He walked towards the center of the crescent that harbored a large crystal dome. This dome was what many would call a crystal ball as it allowed them to watch the mortal world with ease, theirs or others. The dome showed the city of Andorhal in ruins, specks of blood red and worn out purple running rampant across the streets.

"We must keep him on our side long enough for the rift to grow stronger so that we can send one of us or one of our children to Azeroth. Asserting our control on the planet indefinitely." Jupiter said as he waved his hand over the dome causing it to shimmer and move towards the far eastern side of Andorhal, the current location of Maximus, where an intense battle is underway.

"Look at them go! I must say you picked the perfect missionary for this endeavor, Jupiter. A famous and heavily decorated General in a world of pure war, its like a match made in heaven. Oh wait, it was made in heaven, haha!" Mars laugh maniacally at both the prospect of war and at his bad joke. Neptune rolled his eyes at Mars while Jupiter simply nodded, ignoring his attempt at being comedic. Jupiter waved his hand over the dome again zooming in closer to the battle.

"Don't you dare break from the shield wall! I've already told you what would happen if you did!" Maximus screamed pointing his sword, in a threatening manner, towards the Shield bearer who tried to step out of formation to finish off an undead.

Mars roared in laughter once again.

 **XXX**

"Push!"

Maximus screamed out as the shield wall pushed the undead wave back.

"Now thrust!" He ordered again.

The sound of over a dozen spears stabbing hearts rung across the line.

"Reform!"

The clanking of shields sounded for a single moment.

"Now march!"

"Yes, sir!" The Crusaders roared out.

Maximus has been having to retrain these Crusaders in the art of combat during each battle. Their zealotry truly is troublesome, his first assumption about their battle tactics being barbaric was true. The only reason Keldyon's unit survived for this long was because of their priests. However, this would not always be the case, as what he learned from Keldyon, the ratio between priests and warriors are practically 3 to 1, the three being the soldiers and the one being the priests. With this new knowledge, Maximus had to use the battle tactics and formations of the Roman Empire to combat the near endless horde of undead.

"Maximus! The Mages are ready!" Keldyon screamed out.

"Men, kneel." As the wall did so large balls of fire flew over their heads. Pyroblasts, a devastating spell that causes damage on par or even greater than catapults and trebuchets. The balls of fire exploded on impact killing dozens of undead and splashing blobs of flame towards those who weren't hit, burning them slowly with each passing second.

"Volley!" Maximus screamed and a small hail of arrows flew over them killing the few undead who were burning.

"Rise and march!" The shield wall rose and moved forward against the undead as ordered.

So far the organized and well formatted tactics of a Roman General has been working and they have been pushing the undead back further and further away from the center of the city. However, Maximus has had trouble configuring his stratagem to include Mages, Priests, and even the Zealots class of warriors into battle. His experience in leading armies in Rome were limited to only Shield bearers, Archers, siege weapons and cavalry. However, with some thought into the type of soldiers he has in his disposal, he found a way for each class to partake in the battles, even if it was minimal participation.

"Keep pushing them back!" Maximus ordered getting a roaring confirmation from his crusaders.

 **XXX**

The warriors of crusade were euphoric. Forty-six men and women, forty-six crusaders, have slaughtered countless monstrosities, hundreds of undead laid behind them. Their bones crushed under their boots with every step, Zealot's cutting off their heads to ensure they were killed and priests burning the corpses under Holy Fire.

They had met Maximus in the southern center quarter of Anderhal and from there they marched east. In their march they discovered waves of undead sluggishly moving into the city from the southeastern bridge, the bridge connected to the cemetery. Maximus, the former commander of Stormwind and now their new leader, asked the Senior Sergeant, Keldyon, on the abilities and tactics they used against the undead. As Keldyon recounted the tactics of the crusaders one of the Mages in the group listed spells most mages had in their repertoire. When the Mage listed their spells Maximus seemed mesmerized by all the effects, destructive or utility, all the spells had. However, when Keldyon spoke of the tactics the crusaders used Maximus seemed to be almost disappointed, annoyed even. It became appeared it was both when he responded.

 **XXX**

" _You must be joking? Your formations: are simply five man battle groups!? A shield wall charge to where you break formation at the point of hitting the enemy and go wild!? Or to simply charge at an enemy blindlessly and depend on your healers and magic to ensure your survival and victory!? Am I hearing you correctly!?" The warrior's eyes were wide at Maximus's response, in took a few moment but Keldyon was able to recover from his surprise._

" _Yes, for the most part, however, these are the tactics that we are taught by our instructors to simple foot soldiers. The officers are taught much differently and would use their own-_

" _I don't care what the officers would use! If minor officers and foot soldiers do not know field tactics or how to respond to troubling situations on their own then the army will be doomed to fail. An army, a legion, with a smart and trained general is powerful but an enemy can easily outwit the soldiers, killing them all, and making that smart general worthless. However, a legion filled with soldiers who are as trained and, is at least, a quarter as tactically smart as the general itself is unbeatable, unstoppable, invincible." Maximus nearly screamed out as he stared at his unit with anger. The crusaders minds were stunned as they tried to comprehend their new leader's words._

" _Then what would you have us do? We can't simply go back and ask them to teach us more! I don't know if you haven't noticed but we are in the middle of a war!" Keldyon said sternly with some aggression at Maximus for his obvious insult to both their intelligence and skill. The former Roman General merely smirked in response._

" _No, not from them, from me." Keldyon and rest of the crusaders merely blinked at his words._

 **XXX**

From that moment forward, Maximus has been teaching them the basic roman tactics roman soldiers are mandatory to know, along with showing their effectiveness against the undead at the same time. They began with the formation called the Phalanx, the charging variant, where men with shields and spears would charge at the enemy either leaving them crushed under their feet or impaled by their spears. Acquiring the spears was not hard as javelins were mostly used as ammunition for human-sized ballistas on the walls and in other key points across the city. Luckily enough there were near one of those key positions and acquired more than enough spears for the warriors. After teaching the crusaders on how to wield the spears and shields correctly, Maximus formed them in long rows of eight, the standard formation for the Phalanx. Maximus had sighed in relief at their luck as there were twenty-four shield bearers, including Maximus, allowing the formation of three complete rows of warriors. While the remaining six Mages, five Priests, and eight Crossbowmen, supported them with dispels, arrows and fire; also the five Zealots in their group, one of which is Keldyon, were told to ensure no undead sneaks around and attacks them from their rear.

Moments after the crusaders were formed to intercept the stream of undead Maximus ordered the charge.

It was an absolute failure, surprisingly enough no one was killed. Maximus had expected this failure though but he did not expect it to be to this scale. He had noticed some crusaders got out formation as soon as they struck against the undead, despite being told otherwise, causing the formation to fall and wound six of the warriors. Noticing this Maximus quickly called a retreat and the crusaders reluctantly followed the order.

After fleeing far enough away from the undead Maximus began to give sharp reprimands and a punch to the face to each soldier who stepped out of line as he told the men to never step out of formation again.

For if one man leaves formation the rest will certainly fall.

"And if I see any man step out of formation again they will be stoned and beaten within an inch of their lives by either me or any other soldier willing to do it."

Moments after Maximus said those words he had remembered that these men do not know Romen punishments or rules. Worried that he had overstepped his authority he was about to restate his former comment until all the warriors straightened their backs and saluted.

"Yes, my lord!" Maximus narrowed his eyes and nodded but in his thoughts he was surprised that they so readily accepted his conditions. It would seem the Scarlet Crusade takes insubordination as seriously as Rome does.

"Alright, now reform and prepare to charge."

The second charge proved to be more successful than the last as they plowed through rows of undead. Though some of the crusaders still stepped out of line it not by a very large margin, maybe a few inches of difference at least, or some would not have his spear in the correct place. These mistakes would not be punished, yet, but he hopes that the crusaders would learn quickly enough to not leave any sort of holes in their shield wall.

After two more charges, both concluding with dozens of kills. The undead began to regroup and create their own lines against them. Over twenty rows of eight of skeletal warriors and ghouls now marched against them. Doubting that the Phalanx charge would be able to break through the undead lines and knowing that there is not enough men to do the Wedge formation; Maximus decided to change formations towards the defensive Phalanx. This formation continues the use of spears and shields but instead of positioning their spears forward, overlapping each other's weapons and shoulders, the front line would move their spears under their shield. While the second line would raise their spears above both the first and second lines heads. The third line would act as a spring, so when the undead crashes into the shield wall, the third line would hold the formation steady and not allow it to be pushed back or collapse.

As the undead crashed into the shield wall, spears pierced heads, bodies, and hearts. The third line held the formation up and pushed it forward as both first and second lines dwindled the undead ranks with every moment. It was during this moment that he ordered the Mages and Crossbowmen to begin firing at the undead. Blasts of flame and arrows piercing skulls plowed through the undead allowing the Shield Wall to march forward pushing the scourge further back and away from the city.

It was not until reaching the agricultural area of Andorhal, through a large broken wooden gate, did they kill off all the undead.

Catching their breaths Maximus noticed their location. His mind drifted to the exceptional positioning and planning the architects had on creating fertile farmland within a city, making any siege by starvation almost impossible but those thought soon faded when he caught the scent of the soil. It smelled like rot and death,the soil and buildings were covered by its influence, becoming withered and black, unable house or create any type of wheat or fruits. The fences were broken and chipped, the flowers were mutated and turned into some sort of living creature and the corpses of the scourge and crusaders laid upon the fields, along with bones of cattle.

The sun was soon to be setting, counting yet another day in the battle for Andorhal, casting a nightmarish twilight to the city. The sound of battle was also slowly decreasing across the city and because of it a sigh of relief expelled from Maximus's throat. However, he could not completely let his guard down. Suspecting that the undead would likely regroup and attack with full force tomorrow he needed someone to scout ahead and locate where they will meet.

Looking back towards his crusaders he saw them sit on the ground or on stone slabs, drinking the last few drops of clean water within their water pouches, as they caught their breaths after a tiring and successful fight. Their faces were long and fatigued but a small smile and excitement in their eyes were apparent because of their victory. Maximus doubted that they had the strength for a stealth mission and with a few more moments of quick analysis of the situation he signaled to his men.

The roman spoke to his men, ordering them to set a perimeter around the stone archway as he moves on ahead to scout for more undead. With a loud "Yes, Sir!" the crusaders went to work. Maximus soon turned around and with a roll of his shoulders began to march forward. He had taken a few short steps before being pulled back by the shoulder. Turning around quickly he found Keldyon and the four other Zealots standing behind him.

"You are not going alone." The minor officer spoke simply. His face stern as he stared at Maximus with narrowed eyes but not out of anger, mostly out of concern and annoyance. Annoyance for being left out of the battle that seemed to have taken the entire day. As his blood, and the blood of the other zealots, were boiling and the need for battle was becoming to hard to bare, coincidently reminding of the tales of the Triarii during the age of the Roman Republic, but they were also concerned about Maximus's safety. As allowing their leader, who has shown success against the undead, to scout alone is too much of risk to take.

Maximus saw this in him, in his eyes.

" Alright, you can come but try to be silent."

" I don't think that would be really possible, I mean, most of us are wearing plate armor, after all." Keldyon said with a mirthless smirk as he, Maximus and other Zealots marched off.

 **XXX**

"Ok, I admit, the more I watch him, the more of a right he has to wear that custom armor I made him." Vulcan, the God of the Forge, said quietly rubbing the back of his bald head. He has been watching the mortal since the first day he had arrived to Azeroth, wondering why Vesta would ask him to customly create armor for the former general. He knew of his heroic tale of vengeance against Commodus, everyone in the Roman pantheon knew, Nemesis, the God of Vengeance, wouldn't stop talk about it. Raving that its one of the most greatest examples of vengeance she has ever scene and how she was practically depressed that she couldn't assist Maximus in his quest. Though she seemed to perk up when Mars reminded her that there was a new guest arriving to the underworld, by the courtesy of Maximus. A wicked and twisted smile had spread across her lips as she immediately created a portal to the underworld and cackled with laughter as she sprinted through it.

Venus, the Goddess of Love and the "wife" of Vulcan, agreed that the story was very good but she spoke more about the powerful love Maximus had for his wife and how he would always pray to them every night, ironic considering that she sleeps with other gods and mortals other than her own husband. Though he and the others did not know much more about her opinion on Maximus as she was pulled away by Mars to his chambers, again.

" _To this day, I still do not understand why Juno (the Goddess of Marriage) was so adamant to keep my marriage from being annulled, Venus has been completely unfaithful from day one."_ Vulcan sighed, stopping himself was going to deep into thought. He didn't really care about his marriage anymore but he still felt a little hurt about it all.

"You're more depressed than usual, what's the problem this time, Vulcan?" An alto but feminine voice said behind him. Smiling slightly he turned to greet his old friend.

"Oh it's nothing to terrible, I just did the mistake of thinking on my marriage again." The female goddess laughed she took the seat next to Vulcan. Her hair was black and short, enveloping her head, lightly touching the sides of her face. Her skin was lightly tanned and scared, mostly because of all the battles she's been a part of. Her eyes were a deep brown filled with amusement and strength. She wore lightly plated armor that covered her legs and chest along with a spiked, metal, spaulder covering her left shoulder and leather bracers over her arms and wrists. The rest of her body was either covered by thick cloth or not covered at all.

"What do I owe for your pleasant company today, Bellona?" Leaning forward from her chair she pointed with her chin towards the crystal dome.

"Ahh, Maximus, you are interested in him as well, I take it?"

"You could say that, yes. He's shown that he has an incredible affinity for war and conquest. His quick thinking and calm composure in stressful situations is impressive and not only that but his qualities of a leader, not only in the military, but in a more national scale intrigues me." She said calmly as she uses her enhanced eyes to watch Maximus and his few warriors scout for undead from the dome two floors down. Her words caused Vulcan grow a knowing smirk.

"Oh, so it doesn't have to do with what happened the day he arrived to Olympus?" Bellona looked back towards Vulcan before leaning into her seat with a small mischievous smirk.

"Maybe."

 **XXX**

" _Aurelius, take my arm." Maximus said holding his arm out to the former emperor as they began to trek up the hundred or so stairs leading up to the Gods and Goddesses palace, Olympus. The old man accepted the General's arm with a small smile, knowing that his legs would not last long without help._

" _Thank you, Maximus, if only the myths that you turned back to your youth when you died were true." Aurelius and Maximus both chuckled lightly at his comment as they walked up the flight of stairs._

 _The stairs were bleach white and smooth, so white that they could see their own reflection upon the surface. At the center of the stairs laid a large stone canal flowing with fresh water flowing down to the large marble fountain at the bottom. A marble statue of Jupiter stood upon a pedestal as the water flowed around it._

 _They had walked nearly a quarter of the way before Maximus had asked a question._

" _Where do you think the Gods will send me?" Maximus asked to his mentor._

" _I do not know, Maximus, but if they are sending you to fight then it's correct to assume that the world, or at least the area they will send you too, will be filled with war." Maximus nodded solemnly at his mentors assumption, that is mostly likely the case. However, he was not afraid on the concept war, death, nor of the unknown, most of his hesitation comes from leaving his family. He had just gotten them back yesterday and now the next day he must be sent to war once again._

 _Maximus looked up towards the palace of Olympus. It was bleach white, like the stairs, when you reach the front entrance large stone pillars, as tall and wide as giants, would greet you. Gold detailing, royal purple curtains and cloth, as well as subtle red coloring marked the entire palace. It was beautiful, magnificent, and perfect to be the home of the Gods._

 _Maximus narrowed his eyes at the palace and its inhabitants in silent protest and outrage. He truly did not want to do this, he simply wanted to live peacefully with his family in his farm, and forget about his past of being a roman solider, of being a roman general, of being a slave, a gladiator, but the moment Lady Vesta visited his home and brang Emperor Aurelius with her. He knew he would not get that opportunity of peace._

 _Aurelius noticed Maximus's worry, sadness and anger at the gods. Forcing him to be sent to another world with the guaranteed risk of never returning to his family is not something he agreed with but it is the God's decision and he did not have the power to deny nor stop them. As Maximus said, we are simply guests to this realm and we must pay them back one way or another._

" _Now, Maximus, what manner of people do you think will be in this world, would they look like beasts, would they be a kind people or would they be barbarians, and most importantly would they have beautiful women?" The old man said with a slightly perverted chuckle causing Maximus to smile. Maximus knew what his former emperor was trying to do and he was inclined to let him distract him for the moment. However, his question does bring up a good point, even though it will be difficult to move on from this life and into another, his wife was very, VERY, adamant for Maximus to find another women and to have more children. Saying that a man like himself should find women to give him peace and tranquility during his campaign. Though it still feels like betrayal, she managed to at least convince Maximus to consider remarrying but Aurelius's other question brings up another point._

 _Would the people of this world even be appealing? Would they even be human?_

 _No, on both questions, is the safest assumption he could make. He should not think that this new world would be in any way, shape or form, be like his own. If he did, he would be severely confused and disorientated and likely die in a matter of days._

" _Maybe, we do not know," he responded with a smile," but hopefully, even if the men are disgusting, the women would not be so horrifying." Aurelius chuckled at his words as they took the final step from the stairs and reached the top. The two romans stood in awe as the great palace of Olympus stared down at them but the sound of something flying through the air pulled Maximus's attention away from the building._

 _Shaking himself out of his amazement Aurelius urged Maximus to move forward." Come, Maximus, the gods are waiting for us insi-"_

" _Get down!" Maximus screamed as he pushed Aurelius to the ground while holding up his shield covering the former emperor. With a loud thunk a large golden javelin struck the shield. At the sight of the spear Maximus's eyes widened but his attention was caught by a war cry. A women with short black hair wearing light metal armor flew down from the sky and crashed onto his shield. The force from the fall pushed Maximus down to his right knee but a second later he felt the weight remove itself, allowing Maximus to spring up into action._

 _Seeing the women near him he swung his blade towards her neck but she parried by using her spears metal center. She then slide her spear across his sword aiming its sharp tip at his chest but his shield stopped her attack to a stand still. He retracting his sword to stab at her stomach to only have the women counter again with spinning her spear and hitting his sword arm, redirecting both his attack and body to the left, exposing his right side. The women gracefully stopped her spear from spinning and lunged at his exposed side. However, Maximus flipped his sword downward, have its blade pointing towards the ground, and pulled back parrying her attack. Instead of pulling back the women pushed forward flipping her spear to the blunt side and hit Maximus on side of his head. Maximus staggered back from the hit allowing the women to strike him again at his head pushing him further back, allowing some distance between them._

 _Maximus shook his head before spitting blood out from his mouth as he focused his attention back towards the women to notice her pulling her spear back in a long side-arc slash, seemingly trying to swing it as far she can without being in range to his gladius. She did as he thought and by merely stepping back the spear harmlessly flew back towards her opposite side, but she was going to swing it again, this time backhanded. As she swung her spear it began to glow slightly causing it to change shape towards a metal spiked whip, a scourge, and it was aimed at his shieldless right side. Not prepared to the sudden change of weapons, Maximus was to slow to dodge the whip, allowing it to sink into his skin, drawing blood all across his arm._

 _He flinched at its pain and tried to release himself from its metal claws but both the scourge and the amazon would not let go. Maximus had dropped his sword for a better grip on scrouges metal whip while the women had wrapped the scrouges whip around her leather covered arms. A blood filled tug of war began over his arm as they pulled back and forth from each other, both knowing that if either one lost their balance he or she will fall to the other._

" _Bellona!" Another woman yelled coming from the large doorways of Olympus's entrance. It was Lady Vesta._

 _Her scream had distracted the now named Bellona for a mere second but it more than enough for Maximus to pull with all his force on the metal whip, pulling her forward causing her to lose balance. As she fell she had let go of her weapon allowing Maximus to pull it towards his hands. However, she had quickly gotten up and sprinted towards Maximus, more specifically his fallen weapon, which was a foot and half in front of the wounded roman. Despite Maximus's haste to remove the scourge around his arm Bellona, with a forward roll, grabbed his gladius and still in a crouch swung the sword towards Maximus. The man had barely freed himself from the whip the moment she had gotten his sword with her inhuman speed. Maximus, instincts fueling his actions, rose the scourge in a parry defence but the weapon was short and would be completely avoid by Bellona's swing._

 _It was this moment that Bellona's time seemed to slow as the scourge began to glow and change forms, at the speed of light, to an exact replica of his sword and when her "borrowed" sword stuck against hers it shattered to pieces._

 _It seemed as if the whole area froze, Maximus was in shock that he somehow changed the shape of the weapon and had survived the attack. Marcus had rosen up after being pushed down and watch the whole battle, his mind was in hysteria at seeing Bellona, the Goddess of War, attack both him and Maximus and witnessing Maximus use a god's weapon. Vesta was angry for the most part, Bellona had acted out, again, outside the permission from the Major gods and Jupiter as well as almost kill their "meal ticket" so to speak. However, Bellona, was the most shocked of all._

" _He...was able to harness my blades power without even thinking, without my blessing, nor even assuming that he could." Her mind was in such shock that she did not react when Maximus, relieved of his stupar, push Bellona down and place "her" weapon to her neck. She stared at his eyes, brown, strong, determined but also tired, tired of battle, of war._

" _General Maximus, please, release Bellona." She asked but Maximus had a feeling of more of an order and a demand than a suggestion. Not wanting to have another fight, he stood up and walked back several steps but still kept his weapon pointed towards Bellona._

 _Bellona methodically stood up, keeping her eyes on Maximus, while Vesta walked towards her and grabbed her shoulder, violently._

" _What in the underworlds name were you doing, girl!" Vesta yelled at the still unresponsive Goddess of War, who simply stared at Maximus with calm eyes. It was not until Vesta slapped her did she finally blink out of her hypnotic state. Slowly Bellona looked at Vesta._

" _Oh, hey, Vesta, how are ya?"_

" _How am I! What in the name of the afterlife is wrong with you! You attacked our honored guests! What do you have to say for yourself?!" Bellona looked at the two men for a moment before responding._

" _Thought they were trespassers?"_

 _Vesta screamed out in frustration._

 _ **XXX**_

" You know, she's still mad at you."

"Who? Vesta? Why?" Bellona said with a raised eyebrow.

"Something about making her look bad infront of Jupiter. I'm not sure, I didn't really pay attention, I was more focused on trying to finish making your new Warmaster sword." he said with an apparent disinterest in his voice. Bellona rolled her eyes.

" That women is much too desperate. Ever since Jupiter announced his little scheme gods and goddess,even some demigods, from all corners of Olympus have been trying to please him." she said with annoyance waving her hand around in a dramatic manner.

"They can all ride Jupiter's cock for all I care, the only thing I want is for them to stop messing with those of us who don't really care about it." Vulcan nodded in agreement but he was slightly confused on one small detail.

"If you didn't care about their plan, Bellona, then why did you gift Maximus your sword and bless him with the Powers of Eternal War." Vulcan said leaning towards the War goddess, emphasizing his interest. Bellona had closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again, towards Vulcan.

" I gave him the _Question_."

"The _Question?"_ He said with eyes wide " and what was his answer?"

"The Sickle." She said as she looked back towards the crystal ball, her eyes gaining a far away look to them.

" _Maximus, what would you choose, the Sword, the Scroll, or the Sickle?"_

" _...What?"_

 _The former general asked as he looked back towards Bellona, who had purposely slowed herself, lagging behind the other goddess and the two romans as they walked through the large, elegant and majestic halls of Olympus._

" _What would you choose, the Sword, the Scroll or the Sickle." The War Goddess repeated._

 _Maximus was caught off guard by her question. He did not expect her to speak again, as she has been silent for most of their walk. Plus Vesta has been giving her discouraging looks since they entered the palace. Probably in an attempt to stop her from doing anything else rash, which he highly doubted would do anything to stop her. Lady Bellona seemed to be a very free spirited women and no man or women could stop her from doing anything she had already set her mind too. With that in mind he decided to indulge her and answer her question. It wasn't that hard to answer really, for him at least._

" _The Sickle" He said with resolution in his voice. Bellona eyes widen slightly as his answer._

" _Why?" Maximus merely rose his eyebrow in response._

" _Now that's quite obvious, it's my home, my farm, the place I live my family, my wife and son. If I could I would spend every second of life and afterlife with them. I have no desire for war anymore, that died in me when I was younger. The only reason why I stayed in the army and later became a general was for the obvious dangers of leaving the northern forests untamed. Also politics has always been my most least liked topic. If i was ever forced into the trade it'll probably take me week before I would just cut a man heads off." Bellona gave Maximus a questioning look at his response._

" _You have no desire for more wealth than you can ever dream to have, no desire for more power, no desire to have an entire city kneel before you, to praise you, to sing tales about your adventures as if you were a god, to worship you the ground you stand on for merely being in their realm, you desire none of that?"_

" _No." Blunt, unhesitant, and with no sort of actual contemplation. Maximus just seemed to brush those words off but Bellona was not convinced._

" _Not even when we can give-"_

" _No." Maximus interrupted, already knowing what her word to be. Bellona eyebrows flew up in surprise that he not only interrupted her but to how he seemed to...lack of any or at all interest to her offer, he seemed completely indifferent to it._

 _Bellona did not understand how a man, a ROMAN man, could deny power so easily. How a man born in a society, a society that she and Mars, the two Aspects of War, had created, where strength, power, and wealth ruled all, could just shrug off that chance. She had to know, she NEEDED to know, why, why does he deny it. He spoke of simply wanting to be with his family, that had to be a lie, she had tempted more than a ten's of thousands of men to abandon their families with offers of military power, mountain sized palaces made out of pure gold, and having hundreds of women ready and willing to be their bed warmers. This man should be no different, he shouldn't._

 _She needed to know why HER sword followed his will. She needed to know who he was, how he thought, his morals and ideals. She needed to know everything and anything that explain why he was able to use her powers. But before she could ask him Vesta swooped in and pushed the roman general and former emperor towards the Throne Room. Where Jupiter and the other gods and goddesses awaited them._

That the second to last time the two ever spoke to each other. The last was when Bellona was giving him her weapon along with one of her blessings, The Powers of Eternal War. Increased strength, stamina, speed, as well as increasing his five senses. Though she did add some extra abilities like Natural regeneration and some other powers. Un-known to all other gods, as she needed him to be more powerful than anything that world can throw at him.

She needs him to survive at all costs, she needs him to live long enough for the rift to grow and allow her to arrive in Azeroth so that she can finally find out what was going on.

It's the only thing worth doing in this mortal forsaken afterlife.

 **XXX**

 **I truly hope you all enjoyed the chapter :D. In truth there is about another 5000 words under this chapter but I cut it cause I think there was enough stuff in this one XD.**

 **Hope you guys like how I portrayed the gods, one of my friends was confused as fuck when I made Jupiter not a whiny bitch cause apparently that's how he is the actual mythology 0_- Huh, who know.**

 **Also, how'd you like all the reveals and some of explanation plus a few hints what I planned to do next? I'm really curious on what you guys think :D**

 **As always,**

 **If any of you have criticism, please try and make it constructive, Also if you enjoy my story please either fave/follow/review or check in once in awhile to see if there's an update.**

 **Have a nice day! :D**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: New Pieces on the Board**

 **Hello everyone and I must say I really like this chapter and because of that I feel worried that people would hate it. : /**

 **This chapter has little action compared to how moderately action packed that last three chapters are. This one was mostly characterization and sadly, to many who will read this, is not about Maximus. That Baddass will get his own chapter of characterization.**

 **The one who is being brought to light is an OC an important OC to the story. Hopefully you were paying attention last chapter. :)**

 **Also, has anyone seen the movie The Eagle? It's a roman movie on a fictional story. And it is probably one of the most historically accurate films I have ever seen, when it comes to the life styles and battles tactics used by the Romans. I just finished it actually, its what inspired me to keep writing even during class :P. First twenty minutes of the movie was fucking EPIC next one and half hours was meh :(. Though the actors did do a good job though with their characters.**

 **Ok, people, time for the chapter I hope you enjoy it and please review I FUCKING LOVE seeing what you guys think about my story. Even it is criticism, I still enjoy it. It just means that you care about the idea of my story so much that you want to improve it :D.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Gladiator or World of Warcraft**

 **XXX**

The Scourge has and will always be an unrelenting, unstoppable, force. No matter how many undead creatures are slain two more, akin to cutting off a hydra head, will take it place. If the Scourge manages to kill one of their living opponent then their corpse will bring two more undead as well, or maybe a ghoul. It all truly depends on who was killed or who raised them back from the dead. A dead mage might become a Skeletal Mage or, if their powerful enough, a new Lich. A dead warrior could become either Skeletal Warrior, Ghoul, or a Skeletal Knight. A dead bowmen could bring a Skeletal Archer and so on and so forth.

A truly beautiful cycle and a wonderful gift as well. For centuries humanity had been searching a way to be immortal ,or be to close to it like the centuries old High Elves, and now we have discovered it. We simply had to sacrifice our humanity and many times our sanity but that is a small price to pay for the near limitless amount of power and potential we had gained. However, this power can be taken, removed, returned to its rightful owner. He, who is almighty, he who is all powerful, and he who is our master, our _King,_ our lord, the Lich King. The Lich King is a delightfully diabolical creature of corruption. He has no remorse to kill any creature, living or dead, angel or demon, and will bury this world in darkness and make it a utopia of death. Yet, even with all his might, he has modestly admitted that he can't do it alone, despite many of us not agreeing with him, and so he created us, The Scourge, and made it the most powerful war machine ever created. We are his sword, shield, and castle. He made us perfect.

We conquered Northrend, we destroyed Quel'thalas, we corrupted Lordaeron, ransacked Dalaran, overrun Kalimdor.

"And you expect me to believe that a ragtag group of Crusaders were able to not only slaughter our reinforcements, over four hundred strong, in a half a day but also destroy the bridge connected to our closest source of corpses!? Where would they even get the materials to destroy the bridge in the first place?!" Araj the Summoner, screamed out in anger. His echoing, icy, voice made the Necromancer's in front of him shiver in fear and from the cold. The degrees within the tower lowered dramatically and you could clearly see a small sheet covering some of the stone walls. The stone tower was empty of any sort of furniture save for the slowly dieing torches dotting the walls.

Eight Necromancers, robed in black and dotted with red blots of blood carrying gothic detailed staffs and wore either a hood or a skull helmet over their heads, stood in front of the imposing Lich. Floating nearly two feet off the ground with ice covered chains wrapped around his body. He had a long frame of only bone covered in an elegant purple, blue and gold robe, giving him the appearance of a prestigious nobel from a very wealthy family, glowing with incantations and a freezing aura of ice. His shoulders was covered in a thick, spiked, gold plated shoulder pads. On his head was a large ornate golden crown with horns protruding out and on his back was large golden and enchanted cowl, adding to his aristocratic look. His skull was disfigured from its original human normality as it was longer and its teeth were sharp and long similar to a Stranglethorn Tiger's or Panther's teeth, his eye sockets had small blue dots of ice in the center being the only indicator that he could still see, and his skeletal hands were sharpened into claws.

"Answer me, now!" No Necromancer spoke for fear of being killed but they knew if they didn't respond he would force one of them to speak and kill him. So, they played the game of luck and prayed to the Lich King that they weren't chosen.

"You!" Araj screamed with a pointed finger, his patience now gone, "Answer me!" Araj used his chains to pull the Necromancer from their group. The man screamed and cried out for help, he even grabbed one of the other Necromancer's hands but the man he grabbed kicked him out of his grasp. The chained Necromancer shivered against the freezing cold metal as he was lifted up to eye level with Araj, the Lich's face was contorted into a snarl, which made the necrotic summoner flinch.

"They're tactics were d-different that the rest of the scarlets, my lord. We did not know how to respond to their formations other than sending more undead against them. We simply aren't military comman- "

"Enough!" Araj demanded as he slammed the poor necrotic warlock onto the ground. The broken man groaned as he was lifted up before being slammed down again, this time killing him.

Araj was tired of these Necromancers incompetence. Scholomance might be home of all dark magic in Azeroth, that has had alumni of the like of Nurug Cuttleblood, Fithal Dredsmell, and Alarya Fungelblossom but then there were the students who weren't as...motivated. Like these wretches, nibbling on the dark arts and claiming to be eternally loyal to the Lich King. Yet they have so much needless fear for death that its sickening. Why not just accept death and become an eternal servant of the Lich King like you had sworn to do? Isn't that what they wanted? Of course not, the children simply wanted to side with the winning force to survive, commendable strategy but disgraceful. We have no need for spineless weaklings.

With a snarl he used his dark magic to reanimate the necromancer into a zombie, he was not worthy of becoming even Skull Mage, and ordered him the new walking corpse to tell him everything he wanted to know.

"Yes, master, during midday I and some others funneled our reserves into the city from the cemetery." The now zombified necromancer recounted the grueling battle a day earlier. Detailing the unique tactics and formation the crusaders had taken and how effective they were against their forces. With every passing word Araj the Summoner grew more and more dissatisfied and angry with his borrowed minions incompetence. " By the time we had noticed our forces were being defeated the crusaders had dwindled down our army to a few dozens. Fearing for our lives we ran leaving the undead as our cover." His face blank as he finished his tale.

"Then how did these crusaders destroy the bridge!"

"After entrenching themselves at the main gate to enter Andorhal a small group of them scouted ahead. They had discovered us and managed to kill three of our six before we were able to cast any of our spells and we-"

"Get to the point!" Araj demanded.

"Yes, my lord, as we were fleeing from them we had lead them to a hidden apothecary laboratories, holding experimental concoctions, that we had tried to hide ourselves in. They found us and we ran again but it would seem that they used those concoctions to destroy-"

"Who were the other necromancers with you!" Araj seethed in anger. The zombie paused and calmly turned towards the group of his former compatriots and pointed out two men. The men in question began to run away but were stopped by the others and were forced to kneel before the Lich. In a wordless announcement he executed the two men with **Dark Ritual** , their souls flowing into Araj's slightly open mouth and nearly empty eye sockets, then he turned to the zombie necromancer and blow off his with a **Frostbolt**.

"Let this be a message to all of you. If you fail, if you are a coward, if you are unloyal to The Scourge, to the Lich King, and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, if you are a complete and utter idiot then expect your soul to be in eternal sorrow!," Araj exclaimed to the remaining five necromancers. " But if you succeed, if you stand your ground, if you show unwavering loyalty, intelligence, then expect immortality and power!" The men gulped and kneeled towards the Undead Lord of Andorhal, not wanting him to kill them in his fit of rage.

"Now go and gather as many forces you need to kill those zealots!" The necromancers quickly ran out of the tower to do as he had commanded.

Araj sighed in frustration as he watched them scurry away like the insects they were. If he wasn't certain the "Darkmaster", he thought sarcastically, Gandling was on complete agreement with this operation he would called out domestic sabotage. These necromancers are subpar, a horrific mix of being weak willed and magical prowess.

The lich reached into his robe and caressed his phylactery, soothing his nerves. It always brings a wave of clam to him the more direct a touch he had with his soul. He, however, stopped his stress relieving action when heavy steps of clanking metal sounded from the towers entrance.

A few moments later a pale skinned, glowing ice blue eyed, pale white haired human wearing blueish black plate armor entered the towers. A long, thick, blue cloak flowed down his back, a plain blue steel circlet covered his forehead and a thick blue face clothed covered his bottom part of his face. He carried a long, serrated and jagged edged sword with multi colored glowing symbols on the swords face, patterned in pairs of two in the order of red, blue and green. It's hilt was thick and the butt of the sword was sharpened along with its cross guards also sharpened. If Araj still had eyebrows they would be risen in curiosity as he did not expect the loyal Deathknight to have arrived so soon.

"Darkreaver, have you completed your assignment already?"

"Yes, it was easier than expected, I had overestimated the Crusaders skill in combat and were easily out maneuvered. They're lack of leadership truly caused them to go nearly feral, mindlessly fighting with no direction, its disheartening, truly it is." The Deathknight replied cooly, his voice in a double toned echo, as he stood in front of Araj. Darkreaver then stabbed his sword into the stone floor and leaned, lightly, on to it, his eye filled with mild humor. "They almost remind me of ghouls, only less adorable and more alive." He finished with mild laughter," Now, Lord Araj, I have come for my next mission, who will be my next opponent?"

Marvelous, if there's one thing he appreciated about Deathknight's are there constant drive for more combat, for more bloodshed. Not to mention their intelligence, skill, raw power and unwavering loyalty to the Lich King. If only our King hadn't taken most of the Deathknight's to the Northrend then massacring and securing Lordaeron from the Crusader's, Argent Dawn, and the blasted traitors of the Forsaken would be so much easier, alas it is not so.

"Before I give you your assignment I must congratulate you, Sir Darkreaver. With your skill we have now taken most of the western half of Andorhal and now we must take rest." Darkreaver's eyebrow rose in question to his words.

"Pardon my interruption, my lord, but have we not taken the Eastern half already? Our reinforcements from the local cemetery should have cleared out most, if not all, of the crusaders that reside there." The lich groaned out a sigh causing Darkreaver to grow slightly surprised. Had something gone wrong?

"That is actually what your next assignment will be. There is a small contingent of Crusaders who have managed to eradicate our new minions and destroy the bridge connecting Andorhal to the cemetery. From our reports it seems that we had missed an officer and he has managed to collect enough forces to conduct a counter attack. It is also important to note that this commander's tactics are different than traditional crusaders, his strategies are more disciplined, tempered, controlled and involves a number of different formations." Darkreaver is very pleased, his blood began to boil in excitement. A surviving officer and one who uses more cunning tactics than the common trash that most of the crusader leadership throws at them?

"I have sent a few necromancers ahead to gather a force of undead to commence an attack I, however, have doubts in their success but with you at their head those crusaders would rue the day they even thought to fight against the Scourge." His powerful and dark laughed echoed through the tower.

" It shall be done, Lord Araj." Darkreaver said as he bowed," is there anything else you wish of me?"

"Not at the moment, no, but stay. I must tell you all the details I have on this man's tactics, we wouldn't want to go all half-cocked now, would we?" The Deathknight's icy blue eyes grew brighter in anticipation as he looked up at the lich.

"No, no we wouldn't."

 **XXX**

"Cleric!"

"AHHHH!"

"I need more bandages now!"

His head was swirling with noises, of screams of pain and anguish. His mind was floating in a fog of hopelessness and confusion.

Bodies of wailing crusaders were spread up and down the Town Hall located at the center of Andorhal. The once noble and aristocratic home of politics was emptied; no chairs, no tables, no bookshelfs. The candle lights were left on the floor to illuminate a small area around it which was mostly filled with enormous pools of blood on the floor.

" _Crimson, like the banner of the Crusade. I wonder if that's why they made our colors red? To show that we are willing to be bathed in our own blood to merely have the chance to purge the undead from the plaguelands. Stupid, the lot of them...and I guess I'm stupid as well."_

The furniture within the Town Hall were broken apart and nailed to the windows and any openings within the building, with the hope that it would hold the undead back. The front door was being held closed by the thick and heavy wooden bookshelfs, there books and documents burned long ago for fire in the cold nights. Those shelves that had once held the names of noble families in historic texts, books filled with all kinds of bureaucratic matters, and books filled with tales of the grand hero vanquishing evil.

" _No, there is no tale of heroism to be told here, only defeat."_ He thought morbidly as he watched a wounded warrior scream in pain. Her blood flowing freely from her mouth and side. It would seem she was struck by a spear and had piercing through her back. With all the screaming within the room from the other occupants her cries for relief from her pain were covered and unnoticed. She passed loudly and defiantly and in her death she left a blank and calm face to remain as her soul was lifted towards the Light.

The man did nothing for her even though her eyes were begging for his help.

" _She's lucky, her soul would have left her body before the necromancers would have hold of her. Unlike the rest of us, we are doomed for eternal torment,"_ he thought in depression. It was the reason why he didn't try to help her. For if she died now her soul will be in the heavens away from this place.

He sat down palming his face before sliding up to rub his forehead. He shouldn't be thinking like this, he's probably the only, no- he is the last remaining officer in the entirety of Andorhal; a measly 2nd Lieutenant with no prior experience against the unstoppable horde of the dead. Gregory died from his wounds when we were running to the Town Hall for safety, he was our leader at the time, a Captain. He had taken over the forces we were able to recover and set up a somewhat effective defence. It took only a day before the undead broke through our barricades and unleash a wave of death that, sadly, many have which have already seen and have now experienced yet again.

"Sir," A voice called from his side. He removed his hand from his face and turned his head. It was one of his Corporals, one of the only two soldiers that weren't ranked as a recruit other than himself. His body was completely armored in the typical blood red crusader plate armor, carrying a shield on his left arm and blade on his left hip, leaving only his bright brown eyes uncovered.

"Yes?"

"I have counted up those who could still fight. We currently have five sets of ten and six others ready for combat...What number is that, my lord, if I am allowed to ask?" The corporal asked curiously. If not for the direness of the situation the Lieutenant would have laughed or at least chuckled at the question. " _Even now the man still wants to learn academics."_

The Corporal, a man named Gareth Ambermill, a former resident of Ambermill and now current warrior of the Scarlet Crusade. From what he had learned Gareth was a farmer whose family and home were murdered and destroyed by the undead in the early months of the war. Filled with a drive for vengeance, he had traveled through the untamed lands of Hillsbrad and Alterac Valley along with many others towards Tyr's Hand, seeking to serve the Scarlet Crusade.

After years of service, his will to see the undead menace destroyed never left him but he did gain enough of his calm to think upon his future. He knew that when we, more like if, erased the undead from the face of Azeroth he needed to have some sort of work afterwards. As, in his mind, if there are no undead, there is no need for a crusade.

They grew accustomed to one another's company and now have a sense of comradery and friendship. One day, Gareth had told him of his plans to become a merchant after the war but he doubts that he would be able to become one, as he has no ability to read nor count above ten. After learning of his problem the Lieutenant felt compelled to offer my service of teaching him the tools for trade. Despite knowing that both of them would die by the wars end; with the undead defiling our corpses

"The number is fifty-six, Gareth, a five and six put to together...How many died from their injuries?"

"A set of ten and four more and the number is still increasing," he added solemnly.

"That's fourteen, how many wounded?"

"Twenty-one" The corporal said with a hint of pride with knowing the exact number of soldiers wounded. The lieutenant chuckled slightly at his enthusiasm, finally broken out of his dark thoughts for a moment, before turning his attention back to the women who had died. A priest was placing her cloak on top her to cover her body and closed her eyes, she seemed eerily peaceful compared to how chaotic she fought from dieing.

"Has there been any sign of the doors being broken down by the undead?" He asked hoping that the door would hold long enough for...something. He truly did not know what, despite his apparent depression his heart still did not give up hope. Hope that something would change and they would survive for another night yet his mind new that it was impossible. They will die in the light forsaken city, he swears to that.

"No sir, actually there hasn't been any sight of the undead for almost an hour now. They seemed to have given up at getting in and moved on."

"Do not take it as a sign of good fortune," the officer shot back. " They could have easily hidden themselves from sight and are waiting patiently for us to foolishly open those doors allowing them to pounce on us like a mountain lion." The corporal who lightly recoiled from the outburst. Noticing his reaction the lieutenant closed his eyes as he looked down to his feet.

"I'm sorry, for my words, my friend, I'm merely… tried, and even more afraid." He said with a sigh and looked grief stricken until Gareth hand grabbed his shoulder catching his attention.

"You're not the only one, Vacuo, everyone here is afraid," the corporeal whispered softly. "But you must remember, despite your lack experience, that you're our leader now and the men will look towards you for direction, for you to keep them alive; they can't see you be afraid or the men will grow more afraid than they already are." He rose his hand towards the man. " Now, why don't we see what we can do about the wounded."

Vacuo nodded as took his hand, pulling him up from his sitting position. The officer looked around the hall once again, the screaming had died down but the depressing aura in the room had not left. The medics and priests have yet to stop tending the wounded, maybe they should ask on what they can do to assist?. The medical personal wore determined faces as they worked, never wavering even if the man or women died from their wounds. They merely closed their lifeless eyes and moved on to the next.

How did they do that, he wondered? Did they believe that their souls would be sent to the Golden City? Do they remove their emotions and simply use their instincts to their job? Did they simply not have any emotion?

How can they so easily accept the death of someone that was under their charge, under their supervision? He could not fathom it, his shoulders always felt heavy when he remembered how many men and women died under his command, because of his lack of experience.

A small, broken sounding yelp of 'No' sang through the halls, the medics and priests ignored it but it had caught the attention of everyone else, including himself. It came from a huddled group of three, a medic and two priests, circling a wounded soldier on the floor. A small series of 'No's' came from the female medic as she shook the man they were operating on. Vacuo could see that man was gone, his eyes had lost its life, yet the women would not give. She shook him, pounded on his chest, even blew air into his mouth that she might be able to resuscitate him but nothing seemed to work.

The priests closed the dead man's eyes before dragging the tearing up women away from him.

It would seem...that they aren't so devoid of emotion as he originally thought. The women's outburst caused a ripple effect among the rest of soldiers in the hall. The priest's eyes began to show fatigue, the recovering soldier were yielding their will and began to lay back, staring at the ceiling. The battle ready soldiers around the room were leaning on the walls, finally feeling the weight of their armor on their shoulders.

The mood grew darker, if that was somehow possible, and a sick feeling grew in his stomach. It was a crippling feeling, like someone had pierced his spine through his chest. He knew this feeling well, he felt many times over the course of this battle. It was the feeling of defeat, the feeling of losing everything and you could do nothing to get it back.

Vacuo looked to Gareth, the ever optimist, and the young officer could tell the older man could feel it as well. Which was surprising as Vacuo rarely saw him ever have the look of defeat in his eyes but it would seem that the woman's cry and continued weeping from the far corner of the room seemed to seep into their hearts.

It was the cries of a broken person, with small a moan between her tears along with a slight gasp of air. She was shaking, with her hair a being a mess, tears and some snot stuck on her face or leather covered arms, the sight would shake any warrior to the core. Her cries were silent compared to others yet it was still loud enough for everyone to hear it, probably even in the other rooms. It was a far cry, a representation, of what happened to their homes, their families.

Becoming broken and losing their will to live.

Vacuo could still see the crest of the crusade on her tabard despite by being in the fiddle position and having the blood of her patients changing the color of the tabard to more red than white. The crusade was supposed to represent the will and fire of humanity but so far, even before this battle, the crusades will to fight had been waning. Not to the point where the Order could fall but enough to be noticeable to the officers and any other analytical being. It's been like this ever since Saiden Dathrohan, the Grand Crusader and Leader of the Scarlet Crusade, and his personal army, the Crimson Legion, had been trapped inside Stratholme. If this sense of dread continues then they will die!

Why was he so fearful of death? He's been predicting that it would happen it him ever since he saw how large the undead force was when they had began their attack. Then why is he so afraid?

" _All life is precious,"_ a voice spoke to him in his mind. The voice was deep, masculine, and familiar. It took him only a moment to recognize the voice to be his father's before he was sucked away to a nearly forgotten memory.

 **XXX**

" _Vacuo, are you listening?" his father asked as he sat on his pristinely made wooden chair behind his wood carved desk. He hand held a small quill with some ink dipped on its tip. A small book was in front of him with some writing neatly printed on its pages. The rest of the desk was filled with small pieces of parchment and other books except a small frame sat the edge of his desk holding a photo of his family; courtesy to a Gnomish inventors creation called the Photographer._

 _The mans neatly trimmed black beard and combed hair complemented his slightly pale skin and light brown eyes. Eyes that currently held a annoyed look to them._

" _Son, please quit daydreaming and pay attention for once." His father continued on, with an irate tone to his voice. Vacuo, embarrassed at being caught fantasizing, straightened up on his chair as he looked attentively at his father._

" _Sorry, Pater." Vacuo, in his 11-year old voice, slightly deepened from its normal childlike tone, apologized. His father simply rubbed the bridge of nose and sighed with a frown before looking at his son. It took him nearly ten seconds before his frown turned into a kind smile._

" _It's ok, little_ _militis, just pay attention for now on, alright? I might not be one of your tutors or teachers from school but I can still teach you something." He said with a smile on his face getting a smile and a nod from the young Vacuo._

" _Good, now, as I was saying," he cleared his throat," All life is precious," he began._

" _No matter if it's a corrupted man's' or the purest of them all, I know this already Pater." Vacuo interrupted, making his father frown again. His father always tended to repeat himself so Vacuo tended to speed his speeches or lessons by showing that he remembered._

" _Oh, ok know it all, can you share with me what I was going to say?" Vacuo cleared his own throat before responding._

" _All life is precious, no matter if it's a corrupted man's' or the purest of them all. A life is a life and if you take a life you are damned for eternal damnation. Within the depth of Fel and be tortured and mutilated by Fel Fire. To ensure your soul remains at peace with itself let the light show you guidance to redeem yourself then, and only then, will your being arrive at the Golden City," Vacuo recited. " Kaliden, Redemption 18-24._ " The young boy finished proudly with his head held high. His father simply shook his head with a small smile.

" _Good, you are paying attention to your studies, I'm proud but," the older man leaned closer, over his desk. "I wasn't talking about Kaliden."_

' _What!?" the boy said surprised," then who were you talking about?!" The father's mouth opened but he did not speak, his face had gained contemplative look to it. With a small nod, having seemed to be decided on something, he rose from his chair letting his simple, silk, brown robe flow down to the floor._

" _Come, I want to show you something." He tapped on Vacuo's shoulder as he passed him to the door, leading out of the father study. The boy quickly followed him out._

 _They walked through their family home, paintings of their families ancestors, of epic battles or stories, or simple beautiful paintings that had collected over the years, lining the white walls. The floor had long red rug in the center of a marble stone floor that silenced their footsteps. Small, ornate, painted windows dotted the walls as well, illuminating the halls with light from the bright sun outside._

" _Here," his father said as he opened a wooden door leading into another room. Vacuo recognized the room, it was the memorial quarter, to pay respects to their ancestors or specifically one certain ancestor. The man who started their noble house and created the family that others see today._

 _Fidelis Apostolus_

 _Vacuo learned almost everything about him, to the point of even knowing his favorites food, along with everyone else in the family. It's something mandatory everyone has to go through, even those who marry into it._

 _The room was mostly empty except for the bookshelves hugging the walls and the lone memorial sitting on back wall of the room, directly in front of the door. The bookshelves were filled to the brim with texts dating back to the beginning of the their family, written by Lord Apostolus himself, preserved with magic and a very temperature controlled, enclosed, room._

 _The shrine dedicated to Lord Apostolus was covered by candles, illuminating both the room and the items on the stand that sat on it. A curved short sword sat on its stand along with a large round shield with the family crest plastered onto it. A holy cross in white with a brown background. The most eye catching item on the shrine was the painting of the Lord. Wearing rugged brownish-red leather armor, carrying his shield and short sword, staring and pointing with his sword at a illuminating light in the sky with a wide smile. His skin white with a small bushy beard and short cropped hair with burning bright brown eyes._

 _They walked towards the shrine with their heads tilted down, their hand clapped together in respect and prayer. As they stood directly of the shrine the older man grabbed a scroll from one of its shelfs. He whispered a word into it unlocking its magical trap, a contingency for those who wanted to steal their secrets. As he meticulously opened the scroll, to make sure it does not get damaged, he spoke to Vacuo._

" _Tell me, what does our crest stand for?" Vacuo respond without question._

" _The white cross represents rebirth and the brown background, which is commonly mistaken to be simply a background, represents the earth we stand on. Saying that we were rebirth by this very earth, or more specifically, Lord Apostolus was when he introduced the Light."_

" _Good, now what does this painting stand for?" Vacuo rose an eyebrow at the question, this time confused at his father's questions._

 _What was this leading to?_

" _It represents the moment when Lord Apostolus brought the teachings of the light to Azeroth. Portraying his strength and leadership that reveals in the light itselfs as he became Lordaeron's first, and one of its greatest, kings." His father turned to look at his son, his face with small smile._

" _Right again, my son, now read this." He intrusted as he motioned to the scroll carfulling placed on a flat part of the shrine. Vacuo nodded and leaned forwards to read its contents._

" _All life is precious but, at the same time, no life is precious at all." the boys voice grew surprised, " Human, Dwarf, Gnome, even Trolls and Murlocs, they shape this world, meaning they are precious to it, yet we fight, bicker, and kill one another; even among the races who follow the Light. This idea of all life is precious is a dreadful misconception created by the priests writing the Light's teachings into parchment. As in reality life is only precious to those who value those persons lives. Like how we value our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, our wives, husbands, and children. That is why we should not harm them, as they are important to us. And, more importantly, why we should protect them with our dying breaths. We must fight for them if danger appears, we must lead them into safety if the danger is too great, and we must die for them if it means keeping them alive. Yet what if they are dead already and you still live. Then I say avenge them, be the harbinger of retribution, or if they died from age then show them they should not worry about your future. Show them that you can take care yourself and that you can help the others you value. That you have not given up, that you can still live on without them, that you will live until you see your great-grandchildren and until you can accept the Lights heavenly embrace, peacefully. For without this will, this strength to move forward, you will simply be stagnant and die, be left as ashes on the spot you stood on for all eternity. Fidelis Apostolus, First King of Lordaeron and Leader of House Fidelis." Vacuo finished, his voice breathless. He looked at the painting of the Lord, his mind processes this discovery._

" _Vacuo," his father called out getting his son's attention," this is what I wanted to tell you about, before." he said as kneeled to be at eye level with Vacuo._

" _What..What does it mean, Petar." He asked confused, his father grabbed shoulders and gave them a soft squeeze._

" _Lord Apostolus is speaking about sacrifice, inner will, and love. To sacrifice yourself, be it your life or your future, to being a guardian those you cherish. That even if you fail and they die you must remember that you still live and you can avenge or focus on protecting those who have not died, yet, and to love those you wish to protect and to never forget them. Tell me, my little_ _militis, do you have what it takes to sacrifice yourself, do you have the inner will to do so."_

 _The mind of a young Vacuo raced, trying to come up with an answer to his father's question. Does he have what it takes? We he willing to sacrifice himself for others? His contemplating had taken a long moment keeping his father in anticipation. When Vacuo finally spoke, his word struck his father his very heart._

" _No, I don't have what is takes, Pater," his father frowned at his words," I believe that Lord Apostolus was wrong, why should we die for our others when we can live." the father's frown deepened, was his son truly this selfish?_

" _Why sacrifice yourself when we can live and protect them for the rest of our lives. I won't die from battle for I aim to win, I'll defeat everyone that tries to harm my friends and family and come back alive every time because if I'm dead who would protect them." Vacuo finished with a passionate eyes. His father's frown was now gone and only an amazed expressed remained. Vacuo took his express as something worse than his frown so he flinched and looked away from his father, saying a weak 'sorry' as well._

" _No, my son, there is nothing to be sorry about. I am not angry, I'm happy, very happy actually." he said with a large smile as he stood up in his full height of six feet and two inches. " Hearing all that from you, its my heart lighten greatly." His father turned to the painting and Vacuo mimiced his movement._

" _For I now know that when you grow older and become adult that you will be one of greatest men on this world. Maybe even as great Lord Apostolus himself."_

" _You really think so?" he asked, his eyes bright with hope and awe._

 _His father nodded," Yes," he said with a smile. Vacuo eyes grew passionate once again._

" _Then I promise I will become that man father. My name will be known across all the kingdoms. They will all know the heroic, kind, strong, smart, and powerful Vacuo Captionem Fidelis and they'll remember it for centuries to come!" his father laughed at his enthusiasm and patted his head lightly._

" _Of that, my son, I have no doubt will one day become reality."_

 **XXX**

That passion, that energy, that strength, gone from his heart, snuffed out. The day his family was murdered was the same day his goals and dreams were ripped. His parents, gone, his grandparents, gone, his cousins and and uncles,gone , and his younger sister…

" _OH LIGHT! I'm such a fool, a coward!"_ He screamed in his mind." _How could he have forgotten about his sister, his sweet, sweet, sister!?"_

In his angst, he forgot why he had joined the crusade. To ensure that his sister would never have to feel the embrace of undeath and to avenge his family. To murder the traitors who had sided with Arthas and his cult.

To murder his bastard of a brother, Salvos Utcumque Fidelis, for betraying their family. For siding with the side of darkness.

His purpose in life, something he vowed close to a year earlier on the day he joined, was forgotten. On the day the undead attacked he was frozen stiff. His inner will whisked away by the wind. His purpose replaced by fear. I have remained stagnant, my body and soul had began to crumble to ash.

It would seem Lord Apostolus was correct after all but…

" _I was also correct."_ he began." _I don't need will and strength to sacrifice myself as I have none for that. All I need is the will to survive at all costs, along with all my men."_ Vacuo hands tightened into fists getting a look from Gerath. " _For if we die who will protect the people from this wave of decay? The Argent Dawn? Bah! No, we must fight and we WILL win!."_ Vacuo exhaled loudly, tempering his excitement.

"Men! I will not stand for this sense of dread any longer! We are supposed to be the hope of humanity, the will of our species, the sword and shield of our faith! All I see here are broken men and women who had given up!" The man roared marching up and down the hall. " I admit, my heart had began filling with sorrow, that I was losing my will to fight on but then I remembered why I joined the crusade. A vow, a vow that I made to the last living member of family and to all my dead loved ones. A vow that I will protect my sister from this horror and to avenge them. To kill every single last undead on the face of this world and…!" He paused, turning towards his small garrison. They had all stood up, their faces slowly turning determine and inspired, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, watching their leader as he did his speech.

"And… to put my blade into Arthas's unbeating heart! To use-" He stopped as he heard the sounds of moaning undead, battles, and humans shouting. There was a battle waging outside and it was nearing their barricaded fort-house. The timing was impeccable, divine even.

"To use our shields to guards the innocent and our families, to assist our brothers and sisters in battle against the Scourge!" Vacuo unsheathed his sword and picked up his shield. His soldiers rose their weapons and shields with a cry for battle.

"Now, come, fuel your hearts and your will with the flames of righteousness. We have crusaders to save! A battle to win! And an enemy to conquer!" Vacuo roared, with his small garrison following suit. The officer ran through the men leading the charge creating a line of red that ran through the town halls to the barricaded door. With a quick order the crusaders began to swiftly remove the rubble and open the paths to the door.

Vacuo held the door latch with his shield hand, his left hand, and turned to his men who were prepared for war. With a nod and a enthusiastic smirk he unlatched the door.

" _I will return, Umbra, my sister, I will return."_ With a roar he swung the doors open.

"FOR THE LIGHT!" And with his battle cry the battle for Andorhal has officially commenced once again.

 **XXX**

 **Yup, yup, and yup. A LOT OF LATIN! XD**

 **This is just a taste to latin as there will be some chapter with an abundance but its very appropriate the chapters setting ;3. Take that as you will. :P.**

 **How do you feel about my OC's? And you can see I have another two being planned, Vacuo's younger sister and older brother.**

 **Now on the names I have given them. The names have actual meaning in latin. And each one has phrase that I made to connect to it.**

 **The name Vacuo Captionem Fidelis directly means Free Trapped Believer. In other words it means a " A free yet trapped believer." You can interpret that anyway you want.**

 **Also that will be the only name I'll be giving you and the rest of them names you'll have to look up yourself.**

 **Next chapter will be, as I said before, about Maximus and his group. Before that though I need publish a chapter for my other story so a few months of wait ; /.**

 **Oh well, time for a good bye!**

 **Hope you have enjoyed the chapter!**

 **If any of have criticism please try and make it constructive. Also if you enjoy my story please either fave/follow/review or check in once in awhile to see if there's an update.**

 **Also PM me for any question you have and I may or may not answer them and if I do please don't spoil it for anyone!**

 **Have a nice day! :D**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: A Story Told**

 **Another month, another chapter. I've been a lot of extra time now, compared to be before, and I've been cycling through my stories and writing large chunks on each a day at a time.**

 **This chapter I think many would enjoy as Maximus has returned! And for two chapters! The next chapter will be a follow up on this one. As there is a lot to unpack.**

 **Also, soon, very, very soon we will be having the final battle for Andorhal then we move on to the next arc of the story. The next arc is a small one, maybe two-three chapters. After these two arcs there will be a 'break' arc where the characters and soldiers will have time to finally relax and truly think upon what has happened without the impending worry of being killed at any moment. Then after that it's on towards for three more arcs, one of these is a mini arc, and then after that is a climax. Then another three arcs along with two mini arcs for characterization purposes and finally the largest and biggest arc being the last one. Then an epilogue arc.**

 **Ya...A lot of arcs! The way I create my stories is the way my filming teacher explained how I should create a plot for a film.**

" **Start with the ending then beginning, the rest should fill itself."**

 **The beginning and ending for this story was easy to come up with but now the hard part comes into play and that's the middle. Hopefully, I'm doing a decent as I think I am but I'm never sure.**

 **Now, on with the show!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Gladiator or World of Warcraft but I wish I did as I would change so many thing going on the World of Warcraft lore. Just..God Damn it BLIZZARD! You Bitch!**

 **XXX**

He had served the Roman Empire for more than a decade, thirteen years to be exact; till his dying day at the age of 33 years old. He had fought against the Persians in the East, the Goths and Gauls in the North, and the Egyptians to the South. Fought on every sort of battlefield: deserts, forests, marshes, hills, grasslands, and even on the sea. He had bled, killed, and conquered lands beginning from his time as Munifex and ending when he was betrayed as a General, an Imperator, leading the Northern Legions. In all his time in warfare and military honor. He would have never been prepared for not only his arrival here, in Azeroth, but for his campaign against the undead. He was lucky that he had made quick allies with the local resistance force, the Scarlet Crusade, fighting against this undead army named The Scourge; or maybe he was "destined" to have met them? Janus, the God of Portals and Transportation, could have easily placed him in that forest knowing that he was not far away from potential allies. Or maybe it was the gods Keldyon and the rest of the crusaders worshiped, this being of Light's doing. He would never know and he was fine with that as he did not care. He had no need to spend time trying to figure out what god did what, as it did not matter now. What matters now is the next plan of action to survive and win this battle.

With the discovery of gunpowder, thanks to those necromancers failed attempt at hiding themselves, they were able to destroy the bridge connecting Andorhal to the cemetery. He, and his group, knew this would not stop the undead from getting reinforcements as the Southwestern bridge was still intact. It will merely slow down the flow of undead entering the city but that in itself was a blow to the enemy. As the undead valued numbers over individual strength. However, he must admit that, if not being told otherwise, he would have thought that gunpowder was another product of magic. Yet, it was not, in truth it was made by using a form of alchemy created by a pair of races known as Gnomes and Dwarfs. Maximus, who had originally expected to not have met fellow humans in this other world, was surprised to learn about these two other non human races. Sadly, he could not ask any questions about how they looked, where they lived, or what other things they had created. As apparently Stormwind, the human kingdom he had aligned himself with, and the dwarven race as a whole were close and almost inseparable allies. To the point where they even accepted each other's species into each others militaries openly and with equal standing, something he finds hard to believe. In other words, asking questions about a species he would have surely met and seen during my "service" in Stormwind would get him suspicious looks.

In the Empire, and even the days of the Republic, the use of auxiliaries were very apparent but they never, and couldn't, have any where near as much power than even the Roman born Munifex, the lowest of all ranks in the military, would have. For the simple fact that these auxiliaries were not Roman born citizens themselves and that's not taking into account that most were also warrior slaves. Yet, in this world close allies were openly sharing forces like it was a piece of bread or a vine of grapes, this place was staggeringly more relaxed than his world when it came to political relations. The Roman Empire could have easily asked the same out of their allies but the difference was that their "allies" were usually conquered territories who both had no choice but give men away and also hoped to gain more favor in the Roman political spectrum. This level of blatant trust between nations was shocking but it was understandable if they needed to fight against the undead. It was a war of the living versus the dead and the living can't risk killing each other; giving the undead more corpses to reanimate.

However, something that Maximus had noticed while speaking with the other crusaders, carefully wording his questions and comments to conceal his ignorance of this world, was that the use of women in the military wasn't an act of disparity, like the Goths and Gauls he fought against in his world had done, but it was a pointed, intricate, part of this humanities society. He had no idea when it began, as he was indeed curious of its creation, but it would become suspicious if he had asked any further questions about it. He was hoping that he might run into some sort of library and read some historical texts about the topic within it.

This world's language was noticeable different than his own yet he was easily able to read it and, from the instances of getting questioning looks from Keldyon on his cursing in Latin, that he was somehow speaking their language, Common they called it, regularly. He assumed it was another blessing from the gods to help in his campaign.

Now, this brought an important issue that he had noticed. Reading, a very important skill to have for any person, was something nearly all of his soldiers did not know let alone the fact that they couldn't even count higher than 10! Only the Mages and Priests, as well as Keldyon, knew how to read, write, and how to count. It would seem the privilege of schooling was given to only those who were nobles, wealthy, religious, or/and magically attuned while the rest who weren't were left with nothing. He could not fathom how a society who created such amazing advancements like full plated armor, metal cities, hand held ballistas, and wielded the power of magic did not share this level of knowledge and information to the rest of their people; or at least give them something so that they may create their own inventions in the future! In the Roman Empire poor and wealthy children, starting at the age of 12, were all mandatory to go to schooling for an entire year, every day of the week, to learn how to read, write, and basic math. To ensure that Roman Society was civilized, orderly, and superior to all other societies on Earth. The wealthy, of course, could further this education to philosophy, astronomy, higher levels of mathematics, and politics. Maximus father, Decimus Liticimus Meridius, who was a farmer just like him, was wealthy enough over his career as a soldier to provide him with at least a year and half of high level education. It helped in his time as a legionnaire but it did not assist him in raising his rank like it did with many others. He was never truly noticed for his military aptitude until Lord Aurelius himself saw him in battle but that was a memory to think back on to later.

The lack of education among his men was disheartening but there was nothing he could do about it. He would need to work around it when the time came for the construction of his full legion, something he was currently working on. By the use of papers one of his soldiers had taken during the early hours of the invasion, papers which was what originally prompted his questioning on their education, in hopes to give them to an officer that could use them effectively and to keep them away from the cold dead hands of the Scourge. These papers held everything from food distribution orders to, what he considers to be the most important piece of information within them, a map directing you towards rondavue points. These points were scattered across key locations in the city, easily defensible and reinforced with barricades, weapons, food stores, and other essentials in the likelihood that the outer defences fell and the enemy was inside the city. He had spoken to Keldyon and his men about this and found that some of them had come from some of these rondavue points already. However, these points were overrun and most of the crusaders were killed. They spent half a day cross referencing their information with the map, crossing out any locations that has already been destroyed. Along with sharing any information about the undead's movements that could be useful for everyone to know about.

By the time they were done most were still wide awake, having only four asleep, their bodies still working off the supplement magic called Inner Fire. The spell encased the ones it was casted upon with an invisible magical shield, increased strength, mental fortitude and restoring your stamina completely. He couldn't have asked for a better spell than this as it solves two of the most problematic issues known to military; a soldier's battle stamina and an army's morale. Luckily enough it would seem that only men and women who fought for the Light gained this spell and he would most certainly call that a powerful advantage. However, the spell itself, from what the Priests have told me, uses a sizable amount of mana, a resource of magical energy that spells commonly absorbed so that the spell can be used, they would have limited number of casts per Priest. He would need to come up with a strategy to use this spell at its fullest potential. Maybe create some form of rotation involving the priests by incorporating them into battle lines? But that would cause a lack of battle power and give the enemy an opening into their ranks. He would need to think upon this further on a later date.

 **XXX**

"Kylta, you have children waiting for you at home, do you not?"

"Yes, Keldyon, I do. Is that so surprising?" Kylta, a female Shield Bearer spoke up to his statement, with an annoyance filled raised eyebrow.

" Well, considering how you look-WOW!" he began before ducking under a thrown rock, courtesy of a pissed off Kylta, towards his unprotected head. The woman's face was scarred to a freighting level having her most prominent scars be a long gash across her face and two sharp and thin white lines moving along the tip of her lips up to her lower cheek.

"I'll have you know my little girls have nothing to do with how I look!"

"Calm down Kylta, you know he was just messing with ya."

"Oh I know, I'm just playing along, Syndra, which is why I'll throw a few more rocks to his Royal Assness." She saids proceeding to throw several more rocks towards Keldyon. The zealot dodged most of the thrown rocks but he was hit on the head with the last the rock causing him to comically fall back from his stone slab seat. The whole scene gave everyone, including Maximus, a hearty laugh.

Maximus had to admit that his soldiers attitudes outside of combat were quite refreshing. They sat around the small campfire for warmth as they proceed to have playful banter, staged fights, singing, storytelling, and, strangely enough, dancing. Though dancing only occurred when someone had brought out a small flute and began blowing out rhythmic tunes. This little respite in between their battles is more beneficial than most would think. Expressing your joy's, thoughts, and letting yourself have fun for even a short amount of time releves a large amount of stress. Stress that would otherwise strain your mind during battle.

"Heh, nice throw, but seriously how are your kids? Last thing I heard about them was that they began their studies towards becoming priestesses." The sergeant said after picking himself up from the ground.

"Yes, not only do they hold magic but they have a strong affinity towards the Light." She said with a proud smile." I wouldn't be surprised if they memorized the entirety of the Book of Light by now. They've always held a strong motivation towards everything they do."

"If their that motivated then they'll be strong crusaders. How old they anyway?"

"The eldest is 13 and the youngest is 10. Their being watched over by my brother; he's a guard within Hearthglen's defence garrison."

Hearthglen, this hasn't been the first time that name had been brought up. It would seem it's one of the crusade's main military installations located not that far from Andorhal, two to three days if you don't sleep while its nearly a week if you journey normally. That's also not putting into account undead ambushes, detours, or any other unforeseen event causing some sort of delay.

It's been fours days since General Abbendis had left and its been only day since Maximus arrived. They have no way of telling how long it will take for her to finish whatever they called her back for. They didn't know if someone had managed to send a message through the chaos and tell her what has transpired or she was completely oblivious to the attack. If someone did survive the trek towards Heathglen then it would surely take several days, maybe even a week, for her to gather any sort of military force to take back to Andorhal. As told by Keldyon that their were eleven other campaigns occurring across the Eastern and Western Plaguelands along with this one; in a large scale push to split, divide, and conquer the undead forces in a few short months. As this campaign had diminished the numbers of troops the Crusade had in their reserves dramatically. It would take the General another week, or longer considering she'll be taking an army with her, to journey back towards Andorhal. All in all it would take nearly two weeks for her to return and that's if their will be anyone living still around to return too.

"Sir, Lord Meridius, can you tell us something about yourself? Most of us here have known each other for some time now. It be good to hear from someone new. Like What brought you here? What was your life back in Stormwind? Do you have family?" Syndra, another female Shield Bearer, having a short blond hair, white skin, blue eyes, and a slightly attractive face, asked towards the Roman. The man in question nearly choked on the water he took a sip of, courtesy of the Mage's ability to create refreshments, surprised at being called. He was so accustomed to watching others being inquired about that he had forgotten he was still open for questioning.

He hadn't even had time to prepare a convincing lie or story to tell them. That was a horrible mistake on his part as he had to tell them something about his background quickly or they might grow suspicious of him. 'The best kind of lie's are one's that are nearly truth,' the words of his former Emperor flowed through his mind. He had nearly forgotten about the secret lessons Auralis had given him on political subterfuge in his time at the Imperial Palace. Lessons he had hoped that he never need to use for as if he did it would signify that his life would be slowly turned into one within the senate. However, in this circumstance, this specific lesson might just protect his disguise.

"My house is in the hills above Till Hila, very simple place, pink stones that warm in the sun, a kitchen garden that smells of herbs in the day and flowers in the evening. Through the gate there's a giant poplar tree, figs, apples, pears, and soil, soil as black, like a, like my wife's hair. Grapes in the south slopes, olives in the north, and wild ponies playing in the back; I tease my son that he wants to be one." A soft smile grew as he spoke about his home, his heart, his very soul, warmed by the memories he had with his family. His smile soon fell when his thoughts turned towards how he was forced to leave his family once more.

The soldiers grew smiles as he spoke, his descriptions, his soft tone, the love in his voice. It spoke of a man whose thoughts drifted to his home and family often but they grew worried when his smile from had turned into a frown.

"Maximus," Keldyon spoke, as he was also concerned about the sudden change of expression. "What wrong?" He asked, then a thought came to him as his eyes narrowed and his skin prickled." What happened?" His hands turned into fists as dark and uneasy thoughts filled his mind. Maximus glaced at the sergeant before he closed them and took a deep breath, seemingly meditating, before slowly exhaling.

"My...family...was, they were," No matter how many times he said it never easier to truly say the words, that they were murdered and he was not able to protect them. His greatest of failures. Even after seeing his family in the afterlife safe and content. Memories of how he had discovered them, burnt and hanging from their neck in front of their home, haunted his mind stopping him from speaking normally.

"They were killed, weren't they?" Keldyon answered for him with a sigh. The soldiers looked at each other with looks of understanding. They have all lost someone in their fight against the scourge.

"Who killed them? Trolls?" The sergeant continued getting a shaking of Maximus' head. "Then who?"

"They were killed by the son of the man I served."

"A human?!"

"Yes," he said with a nod.

Whispers spread across the unit, shocked at learning that one of their own had killed their new commanders family. They have killed human before but they were bandits and brigands, the lowlifes of humanity who fed upon the chaos and shadows. In their eyes they were just despicable and unredeemable as the undead are. However, what they could not fathom what sort of crime could have Maximus, a man who shows honor in combat, valor in leadership, and authority in war, a man who they can see held an integrity in loyalty that many other leaders did not have, along with a strong sense of duty, done to deserve such a horrific punishment. Then addon to that fact it was the son of the man he served in Stormwind that had ordered the execution shocked them.

"Why?," was the crusaders question.

Maximus looked at them wondering how would tell his story, his story of loss, of vengeance. In the end he decided to tell most of it as it happened only change certain minor but crucial details. Such as serving an Emperor, being a General, and most of all not being a part of the Stormwind military at all. However, before Maximus begin his tale he was interrupted.

"And your answer better be convincing." A priest told him with a suspicious voice. It was the same priest who had tried to attack him when he insulted them the first time they met. A veteran priest named Kedar Bluelight. He was older than most of the soldiers in the groups, including Maximus and Keldyon, wore the standard issued crimson, gold and white robes and metal staff with a holy cross on its head. He was nearly bold, the only hair he had remaining was on the side and the back of his head, his hair colored blond with specks of white. He had a clean shaven, wrinkled, lightly tanned, white face with sharp, burning, brown eyes. " Or I, we, will be forced to perform execute you for being a convicted man. The light does not show mercy those who have caused sin." The man, while overjoyed that Maximus was a skilled commander, still had inkling suspicion on the identity of Maximus Decimus Meridius and was not afraid to express it openly. It would seem, in his mind, that his weariness of him was true, or so he thought.

"Kedar, their will be no execution today even if he is a criminal, which I highly doubt. Now, be silent as he presents his case." Keldyon reprimanded Kedar as the older man simply grumbled. Keldyon gave Kedar one final look before turning towards Maximus with a nod.

"As you know I was a commander in Stormwind, I was respected and loved by those under my command, but I was under the direct leadership of Marcus Aurelius, a noble turned military commander turned aristocrat. Despite his change of profession he still held a large amount of influence over the military and had an army he personally looked after, the army under my command, the Felix Army. Before I became the army's leader it was Aurelius who lead them, us, against the orcs towards the north. I had served under Aurelius for a few years but he did not take notice of me until we were told of a orcish force infiltrating our lands and creeping its way towards Stormwind. We were told that it was a small strike force nothing a few centu- regiments couldn't defeat. So, my regiment and two others were sent to remove the filth. However, we soon discovered that our information wasn't so accurate as we had thought." He paused to catch his breath, his tale so far had captured their complete attention. Thankfully, no one seemed to notice his slip up of nearly calling the regiment a century. That would cause some questions he was severely unprepared for.

"The orcs had laid a trap for us and nearly massacred our entire force. We were able to fight them off, however, but they had managed to kill all our officers. I took command and managed to muster a strong enough to defence in a nearby marsh. In a stroke of luck they fell for a trap I had placed in their wait. When it sprung we were able to kill the orcs with ease. After collecting all we could from the fallen we marched back towards the main armies encampment. When we arrived Aurelius had ordered a report of why our force was so little so I told him what had happened. He was so impressed with my cunning and tenacity that he gave me and a friend of mine, who played an important role in our survival, new positions as leaders of our own regiments." He finished a with a fond smile.

"I don't see how this is related to your crime?" Kedar interrupted again. Keldyon was about to give him another chiding but Maximus spoke first.

"It is related to it as I believe this is what began the whole problem." Maximus' words santed Kedar need to know the truth for the moment. He moistened his lips before continuing his tale.

"It was after this day that Aurelius had given me many chances to prove my aptitude and skill as both a soldier and a leader. I aimed to not fail a single one of this tasks and I didn't. It wasn't before long that I became his second in command and a close friend of his. I was even invited to his home several times. It was there that I met his children, a son and daughter, Commodus and Lucilla. For years I had served him during his time as my commander and in his time as a politician. This closeness we had was something that Commodus grew jealous of and he tried to do anything and everything he could to try and please or capture his father's attention. However, neither of us could have expected to do what he did."

"What did he do?" The question had given him pause. As he tried to think on how he could word the cause of his actions.

"Aurelius was a….unique man. His ideals was different than others and because of this he had gotten a number of enemies but many more allies. He would tend to choose necessity and effectiveness over tradition. It was because of this sense of morals that he had visited me after a major battle in the north and had asked me to join him in a private meeting. He expressed his worries of the future, the fear of his land and those he protected that lived there would have theirs lives in danger. Not from foreign enemies but from domestic ones."

"He was speaking about his son."

"Yes, it was Commodus, he said that his son did not express the values he was looking for in becoming the next leader of his family and ruler of his land. However, he did find someone who fit the criteria, me." The crusaders eyes were surprised at the revelation. A noble was willing to give his own family's status to another, one who was not only a common born but also a farmer, the lowest of the low. It was unheard of and never done before in history. "Of course I denied it at first, I have no right to gain his mantle let alone the status of a noble, but what he said after he told me. I...couldn't really deny him after that." He said morbidly with a soft smile.

"He called me the son he should of had and named me the next ruler and heir to his status. His children's nobility would not be lost nor in question of course but his land, much of his wealth, and power would become mine."

"Lier! No man, not even man as morally strong you described, would never give a peasant a noble status let alone his own." Kedar spoke again, with anger in his voice, a slowly building Smite spell glowed in his hand. A moment later he rose his hand and aimed it at Maximus but the spell missed the intended target as the other crusaders pushed him down.

"Detain him and put a muzzle on him, I'm getting tired of his voice." Keldyon spoke to the crusaders and in a minute the priest was wrapped in rope and had a piece of cloth plunged into his mouth. Maximus merely and watched stunned at the predicament before his eyes. He looked towards Keldyon with a questioning look.

"You're not suspicious about my story at all?" The roman asked.

"Oh, I am, but from what I've seen so far it's nothing that merits an execution. Along with the level of emotion you are expressing in your eyes and words just tells me, and the rest of us, that most of what you are saying is the truth. So please, continue," he said with the motioning of his hand getting a nod from Maximus.

"Alright, as I was saying Aurelius was planning give me his position but he before could do that he had to tell his advisors and Commodus. He said he was going to do it that day after I left to check on my men." He paused for moment, remembering the day in his mind. "By the next morning Quintus, my second in command, and a handful of men entered my tent to arrest me."

"What was your offence?"

"Murder, I was told that I was being convicted of murdering Aurelius. They were under the orders of Commodus to arrest me and murder me in the woods away from my men. They knew if my men were to witness my execution and learn of my offence there would be a revolt."

"A revolt? Why?"

"Loyalty in the Felix le-army is something that is held in high regard and along with most of my men knowing my close father and son like relationship with Aurelius most,if not all, of my men would call foul play and try to stop the execution. However, Commodus knew that if anyone learned about Aurelius making me his heir my family would still be able to claim the title. So, he had sent a group of his personal guard towards my home and murdered my family!" Maximus roared in rage, slamming his fist onto his leg. The crusaders looked at him with sadness and anger. The actions done against him was unforgivable, it went against all the teaching of the light and of the morals of a true leader. Aurelius was right, his son wasn't fit to take his mantle of nobility.

"I guess it's correct to assume that Commodus was the one who killed Aurelius" Maximus nodded confirming their thoughts and cementing their dislike of the "noble" son.

"I was able to escape my would be executors and take one of their horses towards my home. Took me weeks to get their, I was sick, bleeding out during most of it, and heavily beaten but I made it and I was too late. I found them there burned and charred hanging from the front gate, my farm scorched and my home ransacked. I fainted moments after seeing them like that. When I woke up I found myself in chains and under the control of a slaver. The slavemaster wanted us to fight for him in the gladiator arena. At the time I wanted to simply die but I wouldn't be slain while I was down. So I fought and won every opponent they threw at me, at times they were more than one. I bested them all and became Proximo's best warrior. Proximo was the man that 'owned' me and was planning to use my skills and growing fame to get him into the colosseum, the highest level arena for gladiators across the land, to become a wealthy and influential man. Yet despite his plans he felt some sort of kinship with me and my past and so he told me that Commodus was actually funding these fight to the deaths for his entertainment. He said that if I would fight for him all the way towards the colosseum I would get my chance at revenge. So I did just that and when I arrived to the colosseum it did not take long for Commodus to discover that I was not only still alive but also very, very close. However, before he discovered me I used my fame to use the crowing masses to my favor, a skill Proximo said that I had and should use to my advantage. Commodus wanted attention, he wanted to be loved because he felt that he was never loved in the first place and so whenever he tried to kill me in arena the people demanded me to live and he let it. It was not until I defeated a retired and former gladiator in the arena, his latest attempt at finishing me off in the arena, A man I refused to kill was when he felt insulted enough to act outside of the colosseum. Though, that little event had caused the crowd to give me a title "Maximus the Merciful". I found that to be ironic as I don't see myself as that merciful but I know I tend to show leniency towards those who could prove useful, important, or the innocent but that is another topic for later. Commodus had decided to send a large force of his personal guard to kill me but Proximo and the rest of gladiators were to going to fight them off and let me escape."

"Wait why would they risk their lives to protect you? What do they gain from it?" Maximus smiled at the question.

"I was not the only soldier who was forced to be a slave and many of them hailed from Aurelius land as well. Their sense of duty and loyalty towards their leadership, towards me and the late Aurelius, stayed with them. However, there was another reason, as I said before Commodus was funding these arena games and he was doing so many of them that in a few short months that the entirety of Aurelius domain would be in poverty. Food stores would be empty, there were would be rioting in the streets and all that Aurelius and his father before him had built and protected would be destroyed. I would not allow to happen and neither would everyone else. I was even able to make contact with my men in the north and they were more than willing to come to my aid and remove Commodus from power but everything fell apart much too quickly when they attacked. Not only did they capture me but they killed the messenger who was relaying missives between me and my men along with Proximo and most of the other gladiators."

"The next day I was given my armor, my weapon and sent to the Colosseum to face against Commodus. He was going to finish me off personally. I would have been able to kill him easily as the man did not have nearly as much experience as I did but the coward had stabbed me under my armor before I was sent outside. I was bleeding profusely and was sluggish but I was still able to beat the man. I was even able to remove him of his sword and wound him and just like a coward he ordered the men under his command to help him kill me. They were about to do as he asked until Quintus, my former second in command, ordered to ignore Commodus's order. With Commodus now defenceless I struck him down. I never found out why Quintus did such a thing after place my family and I to a death sentence but I liked to believe that the man had began to realize the error of his past actions. It was in these few short hours that I was the new ruler of the land and so I ordered Quintus to release all the slaves and take me to a doctor."

"But If you now hold the responsibility of a noble why are you here now.?" Maximus paused in thought, he face downcast.

"I knew that the other nobles would not accept a peasant born to being a noble so barbarically as I did. So, wanting to not endanger the safety of the people and the stability of the region I gave up my power to Lucilla, Commodus's sister. After this I was lost, I had enacted my revenge, I could not return to being a solider, my home and family were destroyed. I had no purpose but Lucilla convinced me to live on and to find a new purpose. One day, she told me men from Stormwind were looking for me, men who still thought that I had murdered Aurelius and now I had murdered Commodus and gained control of the region. I had to flee I had no idea where to go but when I was collecting my things I had found my purpose. It was a necklace that my wife owned something I had gotten back from the men who destroyed my home, after I killed them of course. She told me it was a family heirloom and it was the only piece of her family history left before leaving her home country. Lordaeron." The crusaders eyes grew wide in understanding.

"She had run away from her home to escape the undead. She told me the horrors she had witnessed here and how she dreamed to someday return to her home. In the memory of my wife I came here to try and fight the undead no matter how small of an effect I will have on them. Also...I came to try and fight the corruption that has rooted into our home. Not just the undead but everyone whose ideals have been twisted. Humans, dwarves, gnomes, orcs, simply anyone I see destroying the societies that have been formed and leaving it for the vultures of this world pick at, to thrive in it allowing them grow strong enough to cover the world in their influence. Trying to usurp the thrones of power by underhanded treachery...the same way Commodus had." He finished, his lungs out of air and tired. The crusaders stayed silent thinking to themselves. Maximus's story was a powerful one and a sad one, that was something all of them agreed on. It told them of what sort of character their commander and from they have learned they are not disappointed. In truth his story merely ensured a strong sense of loyalty and trust towards the man something they knew for certain would be returned by Maximus.

The light had began him here, is what they all thought. The light knew they were in danger of failing their mission, their destiny and they sent a champion, broken and lost, to find his purpose in the world. They knew this as the light seemed to be almost attracted to him. The way the sun would shine upon his armor, the way his aura would give them more strength, and the way he leads by example, not afraid to fight to be thick in battle. He was a good leader and he carried an inner will that showed he was willing to lay down everything for the greater good of humanity.

And so the crusaders stood up from their seats and formed up, save for Kedar who was still tied up, in front of Maximus, the roman looked on with confusion. The crusaders then kneeled down their right arms placed across their chest, their hands hovered over their heart, and their heads bowed down.

"By the eyes of the oh blessed light, we, children of the light, vow with bright hearts of righteousness and virtue swear our swords, bodies, and minds to your vessel. We vow to serve loyally and unrelenting under your command, to not show fear, to not show doubt, to not show weakness, but to only show devotion to your will. Oh blessed light hear our vow, for we vow now, to this champion of your will, to serve him till and after our deaths to bring the cast of shadow away from our future and allow your warmth rebirth these dead lands! Oh Blessed light, we vow this now!" Keldyon chanted, the crusaders repeating the speech a word or two behind. A blinding light appeared from above forcing everyone to shelter their eyes. As the light died down what laid before them was a horn made out of ivory and decorated with gold and silver. Maximus, still confused on what happened and now shocked at the appearance of the horn, gingerly grabbed the horns handle.

"The light, they heard our vow and answered us with a blessed item." A priest breathed out, his voice hysterical and excited. While the rest of crusaders held shocked looks on their faces, a look that Maximus had noticed.

"That vow you did just now, does something like that normally happen?" He asked.

"No, it-it doesn't. What we did was we called a 'Vow of Devotion' all are mandatory to do it to their newly appointed commander. We didn't do it when we first met as we were not certain if you were eligible to earn it or not." Keldyon said to him before glancing towards the horn." But nothing every comes from it, I'm surprised that the light had heard us but I'm not ungrateful this just makes what I thought earlier was correct." He finished with a nod getting a raised eyebrow by Maximus.

"What sort of thought was that?"

"That you were sent here by the light, that you had come here to help us, to save us from the Scourge." Maximus was taken back at his words as though their are not correct they are not far from the truth. He was sent here by his Gods, not the light, to fulfill some sort of destiny that was written in his soul. Maximus looked towards his weapons and a thought appeared in his mind. He mind use their fanatical thinking to his advantage.

"Now that you mention it," Maximus began catching their attention. " While I never thought of it like it was some sort of divine intervention, as many of you already should have figured out that I don't put too much faith into gods in general, what you're saying would explain how I came upon my weapons and armor." He continued as he grabbed his sword and a second later the sword, a Gladius, became a longer but smaller blade, becoming a Spatha, in a flash of light. The change surprised the warriors as they stared at the blade.

"During my trek towards Lordaeron I am not ashamed to say that was wearing horridly kept together leather armor before I discovered this equipment. It simply sitting there as if someone left it. I resisted the urge to take it so I simply waited, to see if someone would return and collect it but no one did. I waited for an entire day but no one returned so I decided to take it. I discovered its magical properties along the way. The sword can be change whatever weapon I think of, my spears can self repair itself in the case it ever bent or the tip fell off, and my shield can absorb to much shock that the only thing I feel is the wood shaking if its struck. This armor may look heavy but it's actually very light." He explained getting slack jawed looks and eyes of excitement. It would seem his lies have been beleive, Maximus was glad, and now they would not question of how his armor came to be. As they, and I, would have answer for it.

"So I guess it really wasn't your choice of wearing that skirt then. Cause the only reason why I haven't asked why you wear such a thing was kept in check by my respect towards you." Keldyon said with a smirk along with a series of chuckles behind him. Maximus rose his eyebrow.

" _What's wrong with my kilt?"_ he thought in confusion. He noticed that the soldiers wore full plated leggings for armor and simply thought that it was because of the added protection. Is there something shameful for wearing a battle skirt-I mean kilt?

 **XXX**

She stared at the scrying orb, smirking to herself, amused at Maximus's new warriors misinterpretation of what had happened. The light did not give them the horn as it was her. The Horn of Bloodlust it was called. The horn was enchanted by her most powerful aura magic and with a little help from Apollo plus some fine tuning from Vulcan in the craftsmanship it become one of her most powerful and prised possessions. Giving all those who heard its wail an incredible power up in pure incorruptible battle prowess. Apollo had used some of his musical enchantments to have it only be heard by those who the blower of the horn thought as allies or friends and with Vulcan's help he had made the normally fragile horn almost unbreakable. It would surely help Maximus in his quest. She had nothing to worry if it was used by someone else as she had collected Maximus's blood before she gave him her sword. With that blood she had attuned it to only be used by either her or him.

"Might I ask on what you are planning, Bellona?" A robotic voice spoke behind her. She looked over her shoulder, her golden eyes staring at the other god. His body was mechanical and his body parts were colored gray with a gold trim. His faceplate was carved to look like an old man with a bread. His eyes were glowing mechanical blue and on his head laid a red horse hair mohawk. His body was also levitating off the ground hoving softly in the air. This was Janus, the God of Portal and Transportation. He closed his hand that held a glowing bluish purple orb which closed a large blue portal to his side. The same portal that sent her horn to Maximus.

"Well, you can ask but it doesn't mean I will answer." She said, her body now turned to face him. Janus tiled his slightly, as because of his non organic appearance he would use more apparent gestures to express his emotion. Currently his gesture indicated either three things, curiosity, amusement, or the equivalent of the "I thought so" look.

"I won't ask then. What are you planning." He demanded to which Bellona only rose her eyebrow. She might not be prayed to anymore but she still leagues ahead in power compared to Janus. He knows this. Which simply made Bellona more curious.

"Ok, I'll bite, I'll tell what I plan to do if you tell me why you seem so concerned." She said shifting her weight from one leg to the other as her hands were on her hips. Her words had gotten a reaction from Janus as his head turned in 180 degrees showing a different face plate. A younger one with a stern chin and sharper eyes. His power was also fluctuating as sparks of temporal space energy were popping all around his body.

"Concerned!? Concerned she says!? Why aren't you concerned!? Bellona, we are dying! No one is safe from death's door here! Juno was the first to go now Bacchus and few more gods are gone as well!" He said angrily his voice a mix of concern and confusion at her words. Bellona merely stared at him with a blank face not reacting to his words at all.

"And?"

"And!? Bellona, I know you're not this stupid! You realize what's going on here! We are going to die!"

"So, what! We all knew we were going to die off in the first place. Chronos told us that the first few days we became gods! We all accepted at the time and for most of our life even but now at final hours of our pantheon you lot are having second thoughts! Have some fucking dignity you dickless, cock sucking, pansy ass, motherfucking, butt licking, face ass, son of bitch!" She insulted causing Janus to begin activating his powers. Portals began to appear all around the room as Bellona pulled out his Warmaster sword and getting into a stance.

"What are you planning Bellona!" He asked once more.

"I want to make sure he stays alive jackass!" Janus seemed to almost blink despite his mechanical body and the portals and his power began to dissipate into thin air.

"Then why didn't you say so in the first place!" he said flailing his hands in exasperation.

"Cause you would of told and I'd rather not deal with his bullshit." She said sheathing his sword and calling Jupiter by his nickname that she labeled him by. Janus simply sighed at her words began to floating to her side as she started to walk out of the room.

"If you had told me what you were doing in the first place I wouldn't have been suspicious at all. Now with our little display of power he's going to be wanting answers." Bellona scoffed as she looked at him.

"Can't you just say I pissed you off and we got in a little scuffle? It's nothing unusual for me since I've been pissing almost everyone off in the last few decades."

"Fine," he agreed as they moved through corridors. "But you have to tell when you started to curse like that. You always liked to curse in general but never to that degree." He inquired as throughout their hundreds of years of life Bellona would only use one or two curses towards someone but he had counted eight in their prior conversation.

"I've been hanging out with Chronos and his time portals. I found this pretty funny show that curses, a lot, and I've been watching it, on repeat, for the past few months. It never gets old for me." She said with a smile getting a tilted head by Janus.

"And it's called?"

"You'll have you find it yourself," she said teasingly towards the god of transportation. If his face could show expression he would be frowning right now. "But I will give you hint." Janus, again, tilted his head.

"You team killing, fucktard!" Bellona said loudly and following it was her loud laughter at her own words.

With that series of curses Janus was officially intrigued.

Who was she referring too? Why does he or she kill her/she teammates? And is he/she mentally ill?

 **XXX**

 **HAHAHAHAHAH! If anyone, ANYONE, knows this reference please make a comment or something. I really want to see if anyone else got it.**

 **Now, Maximus and his story of course a lot of its changed and I hope it wasn't too overwhelming but he needed to tell them something. Also if anyone notices the series of lines I copied directly from the movie I give you a digital jar of cookies :D!**

 **Again, some things here will be explained and some won't for story development. Thought over all I hope you all enjoyed it!**

 **Also I can't wait to write more of Maximus's background like his first years as a soldier, his many opponents and many other things as well. If anyone has an idea please PM me or make a review I want some outside opinions on this!**

 **Also those who noticed somethings are incorrect in correlation with the movie and the reason I did this is so I can give Maximus a bit more background and character than what they showed in the film.**

 **Now, on the next topic of the list, The Gods. Now, yes, the gods will have a role in Maximus but not a major one and you see here it will mostly be out of Bellona own self interest. And what do you guys think about the whole gods are dying thing. Did you anyone of you see something like this coming? As I put very subtle hints about it in the first chapter I wrote them in.**

 **The last thing I want to talk about is the situation with the Light. Just for everyone to know Maximus WILL NOT side himself with the light. He will work with them as being with the crusaders and such but he won't voluntarily be a part of the order of the light. Now, you might be wondering will he ever figure out what the gods are planning? The answer to that is...keep reading ;).**

 **Anyways, as always;**

 **Hope you have enjoyed the chapter!**

 **If any you of have criticism please try and make it constructive. Also if you enjoy my story please either fave/follow/review or check in once in awhile to see if there's an update.**

 **Also PM me for any question you have and I may or may not answer them and if I do please don't spoil it for anyone!**

 **Have a nice day! :D**

 **XXX**

 **Hi everyone I just had an after thought after I wrote all my author notes. I have this little tid bit that I would like to share with you guys, something I scraped mid through the write of this chapter but I scavenge through my revision history and found it and I plan to use the rest of it in the next chapter. What I'm doing here is something you can call a...**

 **Next time on Invicta!...type of thing. Another digital cookie to whoever got that reference :).**

 **XXX**

" _Halt!" His centurion commanded, stopping the centuries march in a second, leaving eighty men standing at attention. He could see the centurion with his horse hair helmet walk across the first column staring at the path ahead of them, a small dirt paved road leading towards a bridge that allowed soldiers and citizens alike to cross over the river. To their left and right were the notorious rolling hills of Hispania and behind them were two other centuries, also standing at attention, their officers curious on why they had stopped._

 _Maximus curiously looked at the hills around them, a small but slowly resonating feeling grew at his stomach. Something was not right, that he knew for certain, and standing here was not the best course of action._

" _Barbarians!" Someone shouted causing everyone to draw their swords and lock their shields together. Maximus watched the centurion rush back into his position in the formation before focusing his eyes over the shoulders of the five other legionaries in front of him. The barbarians, small in number compared to their force, walked over the bridge howling and screaming like beasts. It sickened him. Not to mention their stench, like spoiled eggs with shit on top of it, he could smell it quarter of a mile away...Wait, that's not right. He sniffed the air stopping himself from flinching at the horrendous invasion of his nostrils. The smell was much too strong for it be from that distance. Then how was he able to smell it? Unless it isn't from those barbarians at all. That it's from someone else, someone closer. His eyes nearly jumped out of its sockets at his realization._

" _Ambush!" He yelled catching his centuries attention and not a second later did barbarians rise from their hiding spot at the base, on the opposite side, of several hills roaring at into battle with a bloodthirsty charge. Attacking their, left, right, flanks, at their backs and at their front, as the warriors at the bridge had began their own charge. With a set of five sharp blows from their centurions whistle the men began to form skirmishing columns. The centuries behind them quickly joined their formation forming a long, thin, battle line. The men thinly spread across the four sides, two columns per sides, to defend against the ambush. They barely had seconds to spare before their attackers were upon them._

 _He stood at the right flanks defensive line in the first column, the first to clash against the beastmen and the ones to most likely die against them. Maximus looked up and found his first opponent. He could not see his face as it was covered in an unkempt beard, brown in color. He body was skinny but muscular like most barbarians and like most barbarians he wore dirty, shit stained, poor and loosely made piece of cloths, he did not dare call it clothing, on top of their body. He carried a crude looking axe and was poised to strike with it._

 _At the beastman's swing Maximus easily blocked it with his shield and stabbed with his sword. The manbeast dodged it and swung with his axe again which was also blocked. Maximus pushed with his shield staggering the beastman allowing him to stab him cleaning into his heart. He could not pause however as more and more attackers ran down the hill. As he readied himself for their bodies to crash their shields he knew, hearing the cries of both Roman and beastman around him, that this battle will be a bloody one._

 **XXX**

 **Not that long but not too short it's just right. I am not sure if everyone could tell but this is the actually event Maximus was talking about during his explanation. The story of how he got his recognition.**

 **If anyone would like to point out some mistakes in the formation or such or maybe add a comment or two on how the whole Roman backstory thing please PM me or make a review!**

 **Have a nice day!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: The Battle for Andorhal Continues**

 **Hello my readers. It has been a long time. I have currently left summer and began my first year as university student. It might sound strange but I will be writing much more now that I was in summer.**

 **You see this writing is used for many things. Practice, love of an concept, and stress relief. During summer I had very little stress meaning that writing wasn't really needed. Plus I had a whole lot of video games and reading to do so I had fun with all that :). I am actually writing this in the library of my school at this moment. I have nearly four hours before my next class every Tuesday and Thursday so I've decided if I don't have any imitident work needing to be done I'll be using this time to write.**

 **Now, as I said before this is for practice. For what? For writing my main stories! These stories I'm working on I made on a whim. With plot and everything but these aren't the one's I'm completely excited about. I will complete them. All three.**

 **The Fifth Element, Atom**

 **Invicta**

 **Devil of Gotham ( This story might be completely rehashed. A lot of the things I added I just did from the moment so the writing is very incoherent and has several plot holes.)**

 **I plan to use these to fight my writing style. To find how I like to describe things and what feel completely comfortable. It takes time to find it and a lot of practice so I made three to change it around with three different styles of writing. To see how it works out.**

 **Even then I want you all to enjoy my stories :). Though they are not main ones, they are my first ones.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own anything, everything is own to their respective owners. I'm just borrowing it for the moment :P.**

 **XXX**

" _Halt!" His centurion commanded, stopping the centuries march in a second, leaving eighty men standing at attention. He could see the centurion with his horse hair helmet walk across the first column staring at the path ahead of them. A small dirt paved road leading towards a bridge that allowed soldiers and citizens alike to cross over the river. To their left and right were the notorious rolling hills of Hispania and behind them were two other centuries, also standing at attention, their officers curious on why they had stopped._

 _Maximus curiously looked at the hills around them, a small but slowly resonating feeling grew at his stomach. Something was not right, he knew that for certain, and standing here was not the best course of action._

" _Barbarians!" Someone shouted causing everyone to draw their swords and lock their shields together. Maximus watched the centurion rush back into his position in the formation before focusing his eyes over the shoulders of the five other legionaries in front of him. The barbarians, small in number compared to their force, walked over the bridge howling and screaming like beasts. It sickened him. Not to mention their stench, like spoiled eggs with shit on top of it, he could smell it quarter of a mile away...Wait, that's not right. He sniffed the air stopping himself from flinching at the horrendous invasion of his nostrils. The smell was much too strong for it be from that distance. Then how was he able to smell it? Unless it isn't from those barbarians at all. That it's from someone else, someone closer. His eyes nearly jumped out of its sockets at his realization._

" _Ambush!" He yelled catching his centuries attention and not a second later did barbarians rise from their hiding spot at the base, on the opposite side, of several hills roaring into battle with a bloodthirsty charge. Attacking their left and right flanks as well at their backs and at their front, as the warriors at the bridge had began their own charge. With a set of five sharp blows from their centurions whistle the men began to form skirmishing columns. The centuries behind them quickly joined their formation forming a long, thin, battle line. The men were spread across four sides, two columns per sides, to defend against the ambush. They barely had seconds to spare before their attackers were upon them._

 _He stood at the right flank defensive line in the first column, the first to clash against the beastmen and the ones to most likely die against them. Maximus looked up and found his first opponent. He could not see his face as it was covered in an unkempt beard, brown in color. He body was skinny but muscular like most barbarians and like most barbarians he wore dirty, shit stained, poor and loosely made pieces of cloth, he did not dare call it clothing, on top of their bodies. He carried a crude looking axe and was poised to strike with it._

 _At the beastman's swing Maximus easily blocked it with his shield and stabbed with his sword. The manbeast dodged it and swung with his axe again which was also blocked. Maximus pushed with his shield staggering the beastman allowing him to stab him cleaning into his heart. He could not pause however as more and more attackers ran down the hill. As he readied himself for their bodies to crash into their shields he knew, hearing the cries of both Roman and beastman around him, that this battle will be a bloody one._

 **XXX**

 _And it was. The blood dipped dirt paved road was the final resting place of many soldiers and all the officers. The horror of war dotted the entire field in blood stained piles of flesh. He hoped that he never grows accustomed to the sight._

" _Maximus," a man called out, Quintus, his close friend and now second in command. His armor stained with the blood of their enemies as well as some of his own. He speaks to Maximus, calmly, detailing the region, the swamp that they reside in. Speaking of choke points, high ground advantages and even small hidden hole's in the trees to hide in. To wait for an ambush._

 _As a Roman Legionary underhanded tactics such as sneak attacks and ambushes would stain their honor. It shows cowardice towards the Gods of War but none care now. Wounded and beaten. Afraid. They wish to survive, to see their families. Maximus wishes to survive to see the family he has yet to have but also for glory. He wishes for recognition and status. All young men do, he is not exempt from this._

" _Tell the men who aren't wounded that they will be needed soon." He says to Quintus. The other man nods and walked off. The Roman's hid under a very large tree, tall bushes, and mud. Lots and lots of mud. He could feel the gunky muck of watery dirt on his sandaled feet. It felt disgusting but he ignored it. He was now leading one hundred and twenty men and only seventy were battle ready. He must remain exemplary to the remaining fighters._

 _The sloshing and splashing of water caused him to turn around. The seventy men were assembled. They were dirty by both the earth's excrement and by blood. They looked like barbarians, not the dignified Roman they were._

" _Everyone. I have devised a plan that I believe will ensure our survival." He wasn't certain they would survive or not, at least a number of them won't, but he couldn't say that. Their moral is already low. They mustn't feel the devastation of the truth. They need to the feel and hear the empowerment of a lie._

" _Their is a small ravine not too far from here. That is where we set up our ambush, our counterattack. A group of us will catch the barbarians attention. Lead them towards the trap, the ravine. The barbarians would be so filled with bloodlust that they would not notice our plan before it's too late. As their force's are all in the ravine our own force will strike from the their rear flank in standard shield wall formation. While another group attacks from the front with the same tactic. Trapping them in the confined space. Then a final group will use spears and rocks from the high ground. Showering them with our vengeance. Do you all hear me!?"_

" _We hear you, Maximus!"_

" _Then we march!"_

 _The moment they arrived at their trap Maximus sent the decoy group. He then directed the rest of the men into their positions, giving spare spears to the third group, giving extra clean water to the shield wall groups, and having one final prayer towards Mars to watch them in their time of glory. Begging him to still deem them worthy of his blessings despite their trickery._

 _They could hear the roar of barbarians, the shouts of the romans fleeing, leading the beasts towards their doom. Maximus sat hidden in a tree with a few others, watching the Roman's lead the animals towards their death. Like lambs to the slaughter. As the last of the barbarians entered the ravine Maximus leaped out with a cry._

" _Impetus!"_

 _They charged and squashed the entrapped dirtied spears and rocks pelted them. Their bones broke, their bodies pierced, and their screams curdled with blood. They smashed into the shield wall, desperately trying to escape but we would not let them. They only met more blades to their chests. It felt like hours had passed before they all crumbled but it was only several minutes. Their eyes wide with fear, their bodies bleeding so much liquid that it turned the entire revine red! They had won. They killed them all. They all celebrated._

 _Nights filled with cheering, songs, and tending to the wounded followed the next several days back towards their main encampment. Maximus and his men collected all the valuables left by their dead before cremating them and placing their ashes upon the dead barbarians in the ravine. So that they may fight them in the afterlife for their own vengeance._

 _When they arrived Maximus was met by Aurelius, young with blond-ish brown hair and seasoned completion of a warrior. He stared at the young commander. He eyes filled with anger and sadness but also filled with pride and respect. It was one of Maximus's greatest days of his life._

 **XXX**

I shook the memory away from my mind. A memory along with many others that have began to plague my dreams. It was not until yesterday did they begin to transform into nightmares filled with fire, death, and chaos. It kept him awake at night and other times it woke him with a frantic scream. The crusaders did not pay much mind to his terrors. Apparently, it is something they are a custom to and it is why most don't sleep regularly using the Inner Fire spell to keep them awake. As to them it is a given for one to begin falling into madness while fighting the undead, hopefully this madness would not overtake him so early into his quest.

Keldyon would speak to me whenever I woke from a very troubling dream, the ones that caused me to scream myself awake. He would ask me of what I saw and then give me some comforting words. It helped, at times, other times it merely made it more surreal than it already was. The fact that I was alive again, fighting in yet another war, but this time not for a powerful personal purpose like before, as he would never see his family again.

The senior sergeant had seen this sort of night terrors before and found many of those afflicted by it to have committed suicide. Knowing that fighting the undead has been a new experience of mine he made sure to check up on me. To make sure I was not falling towards that path. I am grateful.

After ensuring I wouldn't try and kill myself Keldyon and I would talk. Memories of our homes, the many duties we must conduct, retelling of our war stories and many more subjects. Though, we would mostly speak about the enemy, The scourge. He has been fighting the undead since the very beginning. Since before this Prince Arthas, the only son of the former royal family that ruled these lands, had betrayed his home and country; and because of this Keldyon is one of the most experienced among all the veteran soldiers, even more than the generals and colonels. I silently praised the God's, thanking them for providing me this great boon.

Keldyon explained to me in great detail of the horrors the Scourge had created. The Abominations, walking, living, husks made up of hundreds of corpses sewn together and made into life. Deathknight's, former champions of all races resurrected into an undead being filled with archaic magics and mastery with every type of weapon. Gargoyles, creatures with the ability to fly and turn to stone allowing them to hide themselves among castles and keeps in near perfect camouflage.

" _While the idea of having a statues in the shape of a monster as decoration strange. I don't think the crusaders would appreciate having a humanoid nearly naked statue in their home either. I believe the term for this would be 'culture shock'."_ I thought.

He then told me of the powerful Frost Wyrms, undead beasts born from the remains of dragons. Fire breathing dragons of all things!

" _What does this world not have! Next, they will tell me of walking sea serpents, centaurs, minotaurs, giants, ogres, and even pig men!"_ He thought with amazement, shock, and fear. This sort of world was only imagination in his home world.

Next, Keldyon spoke about the banshees. Women forced into an ethereal form with the ability to possess mortals. They are the main reason, outside of cultist spies, of why the crusade is so distrustful of others, other than their blatant hatred against races who were not human. These banshee's could have possessed one of their new recruits and none would be the wiser. Then he spoke of giant spider-like creatures called Crypt Fiends. That used both their vicious claws and fist-sized, man eating, beetles that they would send out of their carapace to attack.

XXX

" _Then there are Lich's, a powerful undead necromage, a body of pure bone and clothing enchanted with magical sacrilege. Their presence alone gives the living a frosty chill. His mastery over necromancy and the mystical arts of frost magic can wipe out whole squadrons of troops. Only those who wield enchanted armor, raw magical talent, or have command over an entire army would have a chance at defeating a single one."_

" _Have you fought one before?" Keldyon shook his head._

" _No, I was actually expecting to fight one when we had originally arrived here. It is a powerful Lich named Araj the Summoner who controls the undead within the city."_

" _Truly? Do you have any idea of where this Lich might be?" Maximus asked with interest._

" _Yes, actually, I do." Maximus blinked in surprise. "From what I heard in the first few days of the battle the Lich attacked from the Southwestern bridge, the one you entered from; I'm surprised you weren't caught by him. He is most likely hiding in the Southwestern tower reinforced with barricades and undead."_

" _And we are heading North, damn."_

" _Sir, with all due respect, we would have never stood a chance. This Lich was responsible for Andorhals state in the first place and he also helped in the siege and destruction of both Stratholme and Lordaeron city, our former capital. He is not to be taken lightly. I doubt even if we collected every other surviving crusader in Andorhal would we have a chance at defeating him." Maximus stared at Keldyon's stern eyes for a moment before nodding._

" _Alright, agreed. We will not go out to try and kill the Lich. However, is there anything else I need to know?" Keldyon nodded._

" _A lot more."_

" _Then continue." Maximus urged._

" _Next is the Cult of the Damned. It's comprised of mostly living members who practice necromancy, fel magic, and other dark arts. This cult is responsible for all of the Scrouges archetypes as they are the undead research and development, you can say. They practice and experiment with their magic to create more creatures, poisons, and plagues to spread against the rebelling living and convert us into their cult is lead by the Archlich, Kel'thuzad, the most powerful lich in existence and he directs his control over them within his flying Black Citadel, Naxxramas."_

" _Who is this Kel'thuzad and what is a Black Citadel?"_

" _A Black Citadel is the most advanced type of undead settlements, before it are the Halls of the Dead and the simple Necropolis. It is similar to how human settlements grow from having a Town Hall to a Keep and then finally a Castle. As for Kel'thuzad, I don't know everything about him but I know a significant amount."_

" _Kel'thuzad was a mage of Dalaran decades ago, one of the Kirin Tor I believe. However, he dabbled in the dark arts, something the dreaded orcs introduced during the Second War with their Deathknights. Yes, the orcs had Deathknight in their ranks but these beasts were not the powerful veteran warriors turned undead minions as we described them to you. They were warlocks who placed their souls in the bodies of dead human knights. They wielded powerful sorcery and magics that we had never witnessed before and as you can see. Many were tempted by it's power and promise." He finished with a gesture to the mountain of undead corpses outside the building._

" _Kel'thuzad managed to recruit many other mages ranging from the mana drunk elves to humanity, one of them was Araj. However, the leadership of Dalaran had discovered Kel'thuzad's teachings and it was claimed that he and his followers were killed. It would seem their actions merely gave Kel'thuzad more power than ever before as he had not only created the Cult of the Damned but also the Scourge."_

" _Why did he? I could understand his desire to use his power, most man who wields great power are tempted to abuse it but why create an army of undead to destroy the living. For more power?"_

" _No, he was told too. Many of us still remember the days when the Burning legion arrived to our world with the Scourge under their command. They were created to serve the demon's will and weaken us as a people. Yet even that could not stop our strength as race! Our people held the demons at bay during the Battle of Mount Hyjal and defeated their leader Archimonde and many of their lieutenant's. We showed them the might of humanity that day!"_

 _Maximus blinked in shocked as he learned about the existence of demons in this world. The more and more he learns about Azeroth the more he wished he was back in his home world but he could not fail the gods. He feared they would force his family into oblivion he did._

" _Demon's? They exist?"_

" _Yes, I'm surprised you haven't heard of them or even seen their disgusting flesh but I guess they weren't as interested in Stormwind as they were with Lordaeron. You were spared their wrath. The Burning Legion holds, as the name implies, legions of demons at their beck and call of their demonic god Sargeras. He seeks to converts all life into his twisted image and kill all those would not kneel to his feet."_

" _I see….you said something about killing one of their leaders. The battle of Mount Hyjal, was it?"_

" _Yes, the final battle of the Third Great War marking its end across the world. Mount Hyjal is a large mountain with the World Tree, a tree that reaches beyond the clouds, at its peak. It is in the land of the Night Elf's, in Kalimdor, the continent directly west of us. That shameless, arrogant, and pretentious species had control over the largest source of magic in the world and they let it be taken by the demon's. Those fool's should've have never interfered with our actions in the battle or they would have never taken that power in the first place. We had to clean up their mess as we killed Archimonde, the archdemon who stole the magic."_

" _What do you mean?" Keldyon growled._

" _The human led by Lady Jaina Proudmoore, the youngest ever recorded Archmage in history even by Elven standards." He said with pride. "Led a large contingent of forced against the demons but those blasted elf's stopped her mobilization against the demon's. Labelling us to weak to fight them ourselves! They threatened her with the loss of support and resources if they did not compile. By the end of it all the Elf's were given all the credit for the victory, not even a thank you to our people!"_

" _Who told you this?"_

" _You don't believe me?!" He said, sounding outraged. Maximus quickly waved at him to calm down._

" _No, I don't I'm simply curious of who gave you this information." Snorting Keldyon complied._

" _Saidan Dathrohan, the Grand Crusader and leader of the Scarlet Crusade. He received a letter from Lady Proudmoore herself detailing this altercation." Maximus nodded._

" _I see… Moving on, even with the lost of their master the undead continue to finish the mission they gave them. Destroy humanity," Maximus deduced._

" _Not quite. When the demons left the undead gained much of their independence. Some killed themselves, many went traitor and created The Forsaken lead by the Banshee Queen, Sylvannus Windrunner, the former High Elven Ranger General of Quel'thalas. Most, however, stayed with the Scourge and continued their reign of corruption. Yet, the Scourge, while still aggressive, are not actively trying to kill off all of humanity. It is almost as if they are waiting for something and it is that something we fear. It is why we launched so many campaigns at once. To try and disrupt as much of the undead war machine as possible before that 'something' they are waiting for arrives." Maximus leaned back, slightly, at the answer. He was partially overwhelmed. There was so much to learn, so much analyze. It would take weeks of time and months of experience to truly create an effective counter to the undead's tactics. It worried him but he knew the knowledge of war he has already is just enough to shift some favor to the Crusade. Prior encounters is evidence enough to prove it._

" _There is still much I need to know, to study. In assisting me, us, in removing the undead from Lordaeron."_

" _Their is a library in Heathglen along with a portion of our officers. They would surely give you a more formal and detailed education on the weaknesses, strengths, and other subjects of the Scourge threat there." Keldyon commented getting another nod from Maximus. It would seem that it won't be as impossible as he originally thought._

XXX

From the many stories Keldyon has told him wars, skirmishes, politics. There was a very clear bias towards humans and drastic targeting against other races. Though, he is accustomed to the nationalistic intolerance of Rome against other people he was never one to truly accept it.

He has met many barbarian tribes in his campaigns. Some friendly and allies to Rome while most were hostile. He has learned to always make his own opinion on someone or one's people. It has certainly done more good than bad, thats for certain. As he hadn't needed to involve conflict in most encounters against those outside of Rome. It kept his men and himself alive and happy and kept the other faction's alive and happy. I guess Maximus the Merciful wasn't a bad title after all.

However, the reason Rome did not tolerate those outside of themselves is because they saw them as inferior based off many attribute but mainly for not accepting their lifestyle, what Roman's believed lead to better education, wealth, and prosperity. Which in many cases was true. This aggression towards other races in the Scarlet Crusade was fed by something, by someone and every time he asked who told Keldyon these reports it always led towards Dathrohan, the leader of the Crusade, and his inner circle. Fueling the flame of hatred and superiority. A pattern that now caused him to take dathrohan words just as much as a grain of salt. He would still respect the man but Maximus would remain wary of his words and the truth behind them.

Who knows, maybe what Dathrohan says is the truth and humanity is being targeted by all sides but that still doesn't explain how the Dwarfs are close allies to Stormwind. How they would so openly share each other's resources. It contradicts the Crusader's agenda and story.

All this talk about other races is making him more curious about them, really. He was certainly excited to meet one of them, of any of the races, friendly or not. And if they truly are enemies then it wouldn't hurt to have a labor force or auxiliaries in his legions. The more men to fight against the undead all the better.

XXX

Since the day this battle began I believed our corpses would be walking these decrepit streets. Staggering about with mindlessness and with corruption. Wearing our crimson equipment with decay and disgrace. Praying for the light to end our misery by way of merciful death at the hands of a living crusader. Then hope that our released souls would be allowed into the Golden City, the grand capital of the Light in the afterlife. This is what I envisioned would happen and I had feared that it would come true. If not for the arrival of Maximus, the strange foreigner who is leading us to victory in the past five days.

Wearing glowing golden and silver armor, both foreign and familiar in design, carrying a sword, spears, and a shield, each one just as foreign. His height, his face, his mannerisms, everything about him except the language he uses seemed foreign. At times even that seemed different as he would spout out curses in a different language, one I had never heard of before. He was alien enough to seem like he was not from the Eastern Kingdom at all. Yet familiar to seem like he was born in rural nobility. It was yet another series of things to add on the long list of suspicious subjects under the name Maximus Decimus Meridius.

A list that had nearly been doubled after he explained his tale several nights ago. From his memory there is no such town called Till Hilla in the kingdom of Stormwind. Nor is there a noble named Marcus Aurelius or even a noble family called Aurelius. It is known that nobles tend to never interfere with actual combat let alone participate in it. Which is why every known noble that had fought on the front lines had been household names. Anduin Lothar, Uther the Lightbringer, even Arthus' name and exploits had been talked about among the peasants of the many human kingdoms. If this Aurelius was truly one such noble warrior then his name should have been sung in inns all across the Eastern Kingdoms and the nobles of Lordaeron, a noble such as myself, would have surely heard about this man's exploits yet I never heard word about the man, not a single whisper. All this points towards Maximus lying, creating the entire tale up on his own.

Yet he wasn't. There wasn't a single hint of deception in his tale. Either he mastered the art of deception, has crazed himself to the point of the believing his false tale, or it truly did occur. Despite his mind telling, screaming, at him to call out Maximus in his web of tricks. He could not. The man had showed fever in his actions, has shown untainted determination in his own personal crusade against the undead. Had taught them tactics and formation they he had never heard of and has used them against the undead with amazing success. Carrying tools of war that the Priests had confirmed to have been blessed by a divine entity. As the enhancements done to it is far beyond what a mere mortal could ever accomplish.

He also saved his life.

He had never forgot that fact. That if Maximus had not thrown that spear into that Gargoyle he would be most surely be dead and walking these streets as an abomination. It was for this debt that he quelled his suspicions and followed Maximus's leadership. It was for this debt that he had not questioned his story. It was for this debt that I remained compliant.

It was a debt I wished to repay and so far I have not had the chance to do so. Battle after battle, skirmish after skirmish, charge after charge, Maximus had not once been caught by surprise or was left in stupar. He was unrelenting, a raw force of human power. It is admirable, a true model to follow. Something he himself aspired to be but had never been able to become. Such is the way of things are. Some are destined for glory. Others were trapped in the harshness of self destination. He believed he was a part of the latter.

He had never been given anything except his status as a noble. Something he held very low these days. Proving your own self worth was something he knew very, very intimately. He had to prove himself worthy of an education, of his teachings as a warrior, of his future. He did not feel angry at his hardship, he did not feel jealous at seeing all the other noble children or teenagers be given what they wanted. He felt glad in all honesty. Glad that he was taught the virtues of hard work. It certainly had helped him these past several years. While nobles from every corner of the kingdom were being seduced by the Scourge he was out massacring the undead and traitors to their species, to their faith. These babied products of inbreeding, something he was thankfully not a part of, so fearful at being killed that they simply gave the undead what they wanted. To try and appease them. To only be murdered or converted into their dreaded Cult of the Damned.

Heh, damned indeed. He always thought that the name of the cult was ironic. Many would think that they would try to name the cult something more appealing for fresh recruits. Naming the cult of how you would be punished in the afterlife is probably the most ironic things he has heard in his life. Or maybe the name was appropriate for what the cult teached. It's not something he liked to dwell on for long so he rarely ever truly went into deep thought about. Something he aims to continue now, as thoughts such as this leads to heresy and corruption.

Thoughts about the Light, however, are always welcome. Thoughts of how the Light favors Maximus. The holy touched armor, weapons, and now this war horn. Touched by divine powers and presented before them after citing the 'Vow of Devotion'. It was a reward, a gift, by the Light for our loyalty towards Maximus. Their chosen champion. The horn has yet to be used but many assume that the horn will become a great boon in battle. That it will grant them a blessing for war. It was a logical assumption, as why would the Light give them a war horn if it did not give them strength. Maximus agreed.

He carries it now, strapped to his waist, as we march down the streets of Andorhal. Our small force formed in yet another one of Maximus's formations. The shield bearers surrounded the priests and mages in a square while the crossbow walked in our rear flank. The other zealots and I took point at the front. Maximus has labeled us the line breakers against enemies ranks. Our job was to strike hard and fast before pulling back. Then striking hard and fast again in a repetitive process. To give time for the rest of crusaders to get into an effective formation to counter the enemy.

I was grateful to finally be at the front again. Watching from the rear or at the sidelines always prickled at his pride. I thought that Maximus did not see or felt that zealots were useful enough to be used in his plans. Apparently the reason why was actually quite the opposite.

Maximus blamed himself and his lack of experience at not using warriors of our specialization. That in his time as a commander he had only shield bearer warriors, archers, cavalry, and siege weapons in his army. Though he explained that he had finally discovered an appropriate role that zealots would play for the time being. The role of skirmishers.

A role that zealots like myself would gladly play. It was the ideal role for them as their style of combat, with our large swords and maces, are to clunky for the battle formations Maximus' uses. Our freedom in combat is by utilizing powerful long swings of our weapons and to dodge enemy strikes. This style fits perfectly in the role of skirmishers. It would quench our thirst for battle, our creed for purification, long enough for Maximus and the rest of our forces to finish off the opponent in a masterfully made battle formation.

The undead stood no match against our strength. They laid dead, permanently, behind us everywhere we went, burning under holy flame so that they will never be used for nefarious purposes again. We fought on with purpose and with fire. Maximus would pull out his map and direct us to the next rondevu point. We stomped on the skulls of the unclean with our every step. We have arrived to nearly a dozen rondevu points and every single one had been emptied or controlled by the walking corpses of our fallen brother's and sister's. We freed them of their torture. We cleaned them of their corruption. We purified the home of the crusaders with hot, red, flame. It was saddening. It was glorious.

Our numbers did not swell nor did it fall. We remained steadfast and resolute. As it was for any warrior of the crusade. We do not run, we do not falter, nor do we feel fear. It was something Maximus agreed with, that fleeing battle without being ordered to retreat is desertion and desertion is treated with stoning or execution. A fine punishment, indeed. I couldn't of thought of anything better. Those who do not sacrifice everything to free our home is not fit to live long enough to see it's revival. It was as simple as that.

Though, I think being close minded is possible just as bad. Kedar, the old fool, is too locked on the idea that everyone outside of the crusader controlled ground to be an enemy. It is a mindset that plagued much of the crusade in its early years but ever since the fall of old commanders and the rise of new leaders the idea has changed. We have been becoming more accepting of those outside, compared to how it was before and because of this our numbers have swelled! Yet there is still no way in eight hell's will we ever accept a non-human into our ranks.

Men and women from Ambermill, Hillsbrad, Southshore, Redridge, Stormwind and many more human settlements scattered across the land had come to join the Crusade, and many of these recruits were proud Lordaeron citizens wishing to return to their home country and to put the undead back into their crypt's. It is for this reason that we were able to form so many offensives at once. Nearly one hundred thousand men and women of all classes and all manner of status had been sent against the undead. The crimson banner of the crusade in their hands and on their chests. A sea of holy crimson. It was a beautiful sight. I would never forget it.

Never forget the thousands of the Light's loyal holy warriors banded together against the undead. Against all the enemies of Humanity. Elf, Orc, Troll and even those who shackle us, who hold us back, those damnable half humans, the dwarves and gnomes. Especially those damn goat people, faces so alien, so disgusting, I cringed every time I set my eyes upon one. Preaching that they are servants of the Light. Thinking that they could fool us, fool me. I have seen their people working for the Burning Legion! I have seen their kind wield dark powers. Though humans have just as much potential to be a part of the Shadow's the Light has not abandoned us. It shows that we are their favored! These Draenei are an unknown. It more than likely they are hiding their true intentions. Waiting patiently for the time to spring their ambush and destroy humanity. Azeroth is a world for humanity! We are the greater people! We have fought, we have bleed, we have died more than any other race! This world is ours, we rule it, it is our birthright! Everyone else are rats eating away at our scraps and these rats need to be culled.

I hear Maximus directing us to another point. A few streets away, he says. I roll the shoulder of my dominate arm. I unsheath my weapon. I am prepared. Time for more cleansing. For more purification. For purging. Time for humanity's return to the throne!

XXX

"What have you found, Greht?" Maximus asked the crusader.

"Same as before, my lord, rotten food, destroyed weapons, and dead. Lot's and lot's of dead." He said disgruntled at the lack resources. Maximus sighed at his words.

"With every passing day we find less and less fresh food and water. We'll die out of starvation before the undead can kill us."

"What about the Mage's, sir, they could whip us some mana food and everything be fine." Maximus signed again at Greht's confused filled his words.

"The Mage's have grown tired and their minds have fallen in mental fatigue with the constant battle. While we warriors can go days of battle thanks to Inner Fire the Mages don't have such a luxury. They can barely cast a measly Fire Ball let alone a Pyroblast or even a Blastwave. I've instructed them keep their mana usage to a needs-to-be-done basis and sadly conjuration mana food is not under that category. Their spells are too valuable to be used for something we can find ourselves." Greht's nodded solemnly at his explanation before going off to try and find edible food.

Maximum stared off in distance watching for any roaming undead. His sword and shield at the ready. Several others were doing the same, spread out across the small encampment. While the rest searched the destroyed camp.

His jaw stiffened at the thought.

This has been the eighth encampment designated as a redavu point to be found over in by undead. Though this was the first camp they found none of the Scarlet's among the walking dead. Piles of corpses were placed outside the camp before they had arrived and the undead who overran it seemed almost...disappointed. If that was even possible.

"Maximus!" The Roman turned to see Keldyon walking towards him.

"You have something to report?"

"Aye, we found where the Scarlet's ran off too," Maximus blinked. He had assumed that it was good news, that their numbers would finally increase but the saddened look in his eyes told him otherwise.

"Where?"

"The sewers." He winced. Maximus had never gone into the sewers in Rome or in any other city that had them before but he has heard that the smell in one would put even the most strongest stomachs to vomit.

"I'm assuming they did not survive or else I'd be smelling shit." Keldyon chuckled with a nod.

"Indeed. They succumbed to the toxins that the necromancers had dumped underground."

"Toxins? What toxins?" If there was a lethal gas right under their feet he'd be willing to just take his men and leave this gods forsaken place.

"From what the mages can tell. They dumped gallons of Ichor of Death, Larval Acid, and Prphisi-, Prophisi-," Keldyon rubbed his neck as did a small cough.

"Peroxphoroxide, it's the main ingredient for the infamous Plague of Undeath." A Mage said, appearing behind the Senior Sergeant, getting an annoyed glare by Keldyon. Maximum nodded at the man, trusting in his expertise on the subject.

"However, the chemical has been...mutated,in simplistic terms." He said grimly.

"What do you mean?"

"You see, my lord, we Mages, along with Priests, have an ability called Detect Magic. In which allows to identify certain attributes to weapons, armor, people, or objects in general. Once we found the dead crusaders I had used the spell to identify what ingredients was put into the toxic caudron sizzling under our feet was. In doing so I, and the other Mages with me, noticed the many poisonous chemical but also the changes done to them."

"And what changes were they?"

"Well, we can't for certain but our hypothesis on the subject is that with all the other toxins dropped into the already toxic waters caused the many disease based concoctions to take on a much more acidic form."

"...Meaning?" Maximus asked, growing more and more frustrated at the man's complicated words. The roman might have a high vocabulary but the way he spoke was too much confusing for him. He believed the term was "Scientific speech" something only true scholars could understand.

The Mage seemed to understand, probably from the expression of confusion worn on Maximus face.

"Sorry, my lord, what this all means is that the Plague of Undead in the sewers has changed to a Gas of Acid; and from what we saw this gas kills the dead just as effectively as the living." maximus rose his eyebrow in an unspoken question.

"The corpses of the dead Scarlet's were melting, sir. To the bone." Keldyon answered. Maximus' eyes grew wide.

"Do you think we can use this acid to combat the undead?" He said in excitement but it changed to disappointment as the Mage shook his head.

"No, my lord, the gas is too toxic. Any item we use to contain the gas would melt after a few minutes and I would say the same to the Scourge or else they would have used this acid by now. Plus it's much too dangerous to keep around us. Our tendency to burn everything might touch the gas causing it to explode." Maximus was taken back at his explanation. Explode, he thought?

"What do you mean by explode? It's just air isn't it?"

"It is, my lord, but Peroxphoroxide is known to be highly flammable and Ichor of Death, which is used as an ingredient for both alchemy and engineering for its strong properties, would cause the normally flammable air to erupt in a large blast of fire. Similarly, to a Fire Mages Fire Blast spell. However, it's larval acid property it would not allow it to disappear once destroyed but merely stick to the walls, ground, anything that has a surface really and because of it's magical properties coming from it's Plague of Death half it will return wherever the residue remains. It's probably the most frightening type of acid I've ever seen or read about." The Mage said with a mix of excitement and worry.

As he listened to the Mages explanation Maximus grew more and more worried. If this acid can essentially implode once touched by fire it can potentially destroy Andorhal entirely. He did not care much about the city but he did care enough about his men, any other survivors, and himself to be worried. He would to make sure no Mage throw their flame without ensuring they would not touch this explosive acid.

He groaned lightly as he messaged his temple. Yet another thing to worry about. Every passing day this offensive becomes worse. He would need to find a way to either finish this battle or convince his small force to leave. He will not blindly fight an enemy with no chance of victory. That is a fool's choice and sadly it's something these crusaders have been trained to have engrained into their heads. After removing that stigma he will have stern talk to the Scarlet Crusade instructors. They need to be taught a lesson in true battle tactics.

However, before he could continue speaking a small horn howled from the outer guard. The three men turned South to see the other crusaders rush towards their defence. Beyond them stood a small legion of undead, marching. Ghouls, skeletal warriors, some skeletal mages and archers but what struck them the most. What brought a cold chill to their spines and a visible exhale of their breath was the horseman. A skeletal beast wrapped in purple and blue rags, a harness around in it mouth and neck. It bottom of it's mouth was missing and a large portion of it's chest was gone. The rider sat in a worn leather saddle with it wrapping around the beasts waist seemingly holding it's torso together. The rider itself wore blue, purple, and black cloth and plated armor. His lower face was covered with a large black scarf. His hair a very pale white, his skin a pale blue, and his eyes a dead, frosty, blue. They noticed his blade, a large, wicked, broadsword with glowing symbols all across it.

Keldyon knew who he was, has faced the likes of them before and barely lived to tell a tale about it. The other Scarlet's had only seen images of these pale riders, from their training in Heathglen and in Try's Hand. For Maximus it was the first ever seeing them in any form.

A Deathknight of The Scourge has come to take their souls away.

 **XXX**

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 **Have a nice day! :D**


	7. Chapter 7

**Got the chapter done. I'm VERY happy about it. That and it's almost 10k words. Quantity is not better than quality thats for sure but by seeing my increase of word count compared to the beginning, to me at least, means that i'm getting better in general.**

 **This chapter will introduce some minor changes as in for now on all spells or something similar will be in BOLD. When I was reading the other chapters the spells didn't have 'unnfff' so to speak and so I changed it to be BOLD.**

 **Also stay in tuned for the "End Author Note" as I will be explaining an aspect to the story that I feel should spoken about. Along with other tidbits for this stories "canan" I think people would like to know.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own World of Warcraft or the film Gladiator, I do, however, have a form of ownership to my OC's.**

 **XXX**

 **Chapter Seven: The Glare of Champions**

Over the past few days Darkreaver has had a pleasant walk through Andorhal. Spreading death and destruction across the city upon the Scarlet's that resided within it. He had hoped that in each battle one of the crusaders would give him a challenge. A new piece on the board, so to speak. Someone like this new up and coming commander leading this small force wreaking havoc upon their reserves. Reserves they desperately needed no matter how bad of a taste it left in his mouth to think it, let alone say it. He knew that the Crusaders can be easily disposed of with the proper thought into tactics. Sadly, not many Scourge officers, who were mostly necromancers and the like, had any military training and would usually lack the use of any proper tactics against the Crusaders. He could count on one hand the number of undead leaders in Andorhal that can effectively lead the undead into standard organized attacks. One of which was him and the other two were Araj and a fellow Deathknight named Bonecarver.

Bonecarver had to leave early in the battle as he was called back to Scholomance to rally the undead army that resided within for reinforcement, if needed. Reinforcements they needed now. The crusaders, while still feral and unorganized as they were, are no less dangerous than when they had a leader. The encampments around Andorhal have been pressed upon with wave after wave of undead and some of these camps fell easily while most stubbornly stood, unrelenting in their faith towards their unworthy Light and their crusade.

Darkreaver, under orders by Araj, went off with his small army and massacred camp after camp of Scarlets in the western portion of the city. It took him a day and a half but he managed to clear the Western half of the Scarlets control. When he returned to their headquarters he was told the Eastern half was not only standing but fighting back, successfully. They had even managed to destroy the bridge connected to the local cemetery, slowing the amount of undead that reinforced their ranks. Yet that wasn't even the worst of it.

When they began this assault they were ten thousand strong. After the first day they suffered only a thousand losses. However, by the second day their numbers dwindled to five thousand. Five thousand minions, gone in one day! Araj killed a few necromancers in rage before using his power to not only resurrect them but to pull the walking dead that roamed around the graves at the local cemetery. He had also sent a few necromancers to dig more graves up for reinforcements but after the first fifteen hundred minions it began to lower in number and periodically continued to lower by the day. It dropped from fifteen hundred to a thousand after the first day and now, three days later, it's five hundred. It was very simple to understand what was happening.

They were running out of corpses.

The necromancers tried to reanimate the dead scarlets as fast as possible during battle but they would be stopped by a Fire Bomb, or a **Holy Fire** , or a simple **Fireball** thrown to the corpse turning it to ash. The scarlets were learning, as they did not burn their dead this quickly before, but even then they would still fall. They were still strategically inept.

After being ordered to find and kill this surviving commander he commenced on his rampage on the Scarlets that harbored the Eastern side. Darkreaver began from the Southern bridge, the last confirmed sighting of this commander and his small warband. He was late, frustratingly, as complications with the necromancers that were to be his lieutenants had wasted a day of preparation. The DeathKnight killed them and took all their forces for himself tripling his army. He ordered two of his intelligent undead,a pair of Skeletal Mages ones who had a decent amount of self awareness for command, to lead a quarter of his army, each, and march parallel to his own force in the streets next his. He wanted to overwhelm this commander before he could create an appropriate defence. He had used his memories when he was a simple human to track the movements of the Scarlets. Searching for signs of marching, excrement, and subtle formations of rocks placed for a perimeter in camps. Though, he found it was not necessarily needed it as much he thought. They left a trail of war, death, and fire everywhere they went and he merely had to follow it.

As he marched with his army he began to notice an obvious pattern. Every few streets or so they would arrive at a Scarlet camp. Burned down, corpses cooking slowly on a prior, tents turned to black char, and food stores, arrows, and other materials missing. This commander was looking to rally more Scarlets to his group. With that discovery Darkreaver marched his army faster. By the fifth camp he made his army jog. By the seventh he made his army sprint. Some were crushed for being too slow and others were left behind for being unable to run fast enough, the abominations made up of most the latter. As they reached the eighth camp he noticed the fires still burning brightly and the stench of fresh blood and decay in the air. A battle occurred here not to long ago. He was close.

He spoke to his two lieutenants of his discovery, using the hive mind-like telepathic ability the leaders of the Scourge possessed. He ordered them to ready their forces as they were nearing their target. He readied his own force as well but for the sake of not losing this commander again he did not wait for his abominations to arrive. Pushing forward he sent a few scouts ahead. They returned reporting that they found the Scarlets. They were at another camp scavenging the place. They numbered around fifty strong. A very low number, he knew, if they were indeed rallying others to their cause. They should number at the very least a hundred or at most two hundred, considering how many encampments they had passed already.

With this in mind a spark of wonderment crossed through his thoughts. Looking at the eighth outpost that laid before him he noticed that there were some Scarlets being burnt. He looked at one of their faces, unscathed from the fire, and noticed the Scarlets had been dead for several days. Living among the dead gave him an incredible ability to deduce how long an undead has been walking since reanimation.

By using this knowledge he can produce an accurate estimation that the Scarlet's of this camp had been dead for days. It was likely the encampment had been overrun and the undead held it for the Scourge but there were too few, ten, maybe fifteen scarlets at most at each camp. His attacks against the camps to the West showed that the camps regularly harberd upward from fifty to a hundred Crusaders. Undead never wandered too far of where they reanimated unless ordered too. Knowing this, it is impossible for these camps to hold so few undead Scarlets within them. It's as if they retreated during the battle but crusaders never leave their posts unless ordered too and the commanders group ahead of them only has fifty warriors under his command…

There was another officer. Another they had missed from their initial attack.

That was it! And this commander was a scout of sorts. To gather warriors from the camps and send them to wherever they established their base camp to be. These Scarlets ahead of them must be their most elite warriors, members of the Crimson Legion for certain. That would explain their improved tactics and skills against his minions. This discovery, however, shows that the Crusaders are regrouping and more troubling, they had an officer leading them. Even if their spies reported only rookie officers were stationed here the presence of the Crimson Legion says otherwise. He needs to kill these warriors soon as possible, then convert them into his fold. Maybe he could take the body of this commander to Araj and see if he could make him into a DeathKnight. The man shows clear tactical and strategic awareness and being a member of the Crimson Legion shows obvious battle prowess. He wonders what he would name him, as it is tradition for the bringer of the new DeathKnight to name him or her. Deathcrypt? Nightwraith? Bloodcaller?

Yes, yes, Bloodcaller would do. An homage to his time as a Scarlet and what his last mission was before his converting, a fitting name.

He was excited to face him in battle, this Bloodcaller. He wishes to see how much fury filled his lungs before he would become as cold as he. Oh, how he would savor the moment.

 **XXX**

"Columns! Form Columns, quickly!" he commanded as the Shield-bearers formed around him. The blood red, triangular, shields, marked with a red flame on its face, clamped together in hard metal thunks. Covering the crusaders chest, shoulder, and crotch leaving the legs exposed. Only Maximus's shield, created out of golden brown wood shaped in a half cylinder crest enveloped his body, shielding him completely, even his head was partially covered. As the mohawked, red dyed, horse hair flowed across his helmet was the only thing that can be clearly seen.

In meer moments three rows stood proudly and defiantly against the undead horde.

The Mages and Priests formed up behind the shield wall, shouting at each other to prepare blessings and prime their mystical enchantments. They were spread out by several feet from one another. One Mage or Priest for every two men in the third row, was his order, and if all the Shield-bearer's were taken the remaining Mage or Priest would form up in lines behind them. Their robes shifting in the winds as well as glistening in the light as their self placed blessings, **Inner Fire** and **Arcane Intellect** glowed. The crossbowmen stood behind them in a tight formation, bolts primed, fingers on the release, and crossbows aimed high. Their pupils were narrowed and sharpened as they would when calling upon the **Aspect of the Hawk**. Keldyon and his Zealots were on their flanks, two on their left and three to the right. Their weapons shined with holy power created by their use of **Seal of Command** or **Seal of Righteousness**.

 **Blessing of Kings** and **Might** were placed on Maximus, the Shield-bearers, the Crossbowman, as well as Keldyon and his Zealots. **Blessings of Wisdom** and **Kings** were placed upon the Mages and Priests. The Priests and Keldyon gave everyone blessings of the Light; **Power Word: Fortitude** and **Power Word: Shadow Protection** from the Priests and **Aura of the Crusader** from Keldyon. The Senior Sergeant was one of the very few Crusaders, let alone Zealot, in the entire Crusade to hold such a power, given to him for his faith and connection the Light, the man said.

Standing amongst all this magic, it always made Maximus feel obsolete in a way. He was sure the other Shield-bearers felt the same way. They could only contribute into the group's strength by the power of their swing. Which was important just as everything else, of course, but he could never shake the feeling of uselessness, not completely. He knew that his strategic mind is what many would say to be superior than any sort of magic. Even then, he had to ask himself, how of an unstoppable of a force would he be if he used his mind _and_ magic? It was something he could not ignore.

It is a thought that plagued him even more as he wished he had at least some magical ability, as he was now pitted against a Deathknight leisurely marching towards them on his dead horse. The sight of an actual competent commander has made his once very effective tactics nearly obsolete. As the undead champion could respond to any formation accordingly but he was not made a general in Rome for fighting against mindless monsters. He had defeated countless commanders in open combat and this is no different. However, he did have to contend with many disadvantages the main issues being the lack of forces and reinforcements. Yet, even in the face of these setback he has faith that he shall prevail.

He's prevailed in less before.

The undead marched closer and closer to them. When separated by fifty meters or so he could see the army of dead in front of him with clarity. A mix and match of multiple undead types. Ghouls, Skeletal warriors, archers, and Mages walking together in one large mass of death. The way they were organized many would have called it random but his eyes saw different. The army were placed in groups, squads they can be called, not columns and rows like his own. Every few ghouls had two or three skeletal warriors with them and these skeletal warriors were paired with four or six skeletal archers. When they charged the Ghouls would be the shock troops, the warrior's would be the standard army to sweep up the remaining living and the archers were for support. The only logical explanation for this formation would be to confuse the commander on where he should concentrate his forces. For if each side is being struck by a very similar force by the rest, in mass, any army could be destroyed in minutes or, if they were lucky, a few hours.

Romans used similar tactics for centuries.

He could also see every few groups or so a squad made up of only spellcasters could be seen. He could easily spot the regular skeletal mage paired with what looked like to be an Ice and Shadow based spellcasters beside them. If the skulls covered in blue ice and shadowy gas was any indication. They were their cavalry in a way, a weapon that could plow through infantry with ease.

The only saving grace was that there were no necromancers, not from where he could see at least. No ghouls would be reanimated once again to be two more skeletons this battle.

Even so, he's was beginning to think his prior confidence had been misplaced.

"Maximus! More undead! On our flanks!" he shifted his head towards both directions, left and right, as he heard Keldyon's cry. He could see two more undead hordes marching towards them. A skeletal mage riding a bare boned horse leading each of them at the front. All avenues of possible escape was blocked. The Deathknight at their front, the mages at their flanks and a scarlet encampment with stone ruins at their rear.

They were trapped.

They were outplayed from the very beginning. There was little he could do to counter this maneuver. He could call for a defensive circle or maybe a square but the enemies numbers are too great. They would overrun them easily. He could fall back and recreate the columns to fight all three armies at once, forcing their numbers to be thinned into a single, thick, wave for them to fight but even then the same issue would occur, numbers. Numbers might not be the only aspect in winning battles, he knew this, but in this instance it is causing them to lose. All of the tactics he would use are useless considering the large difference in numbers between the two armies and when you consider the infinite stamina the undead carried compared to their finite stamina. The scale fell further into the undeads favor. Even if he calculated that each crusader was worth twenty undead, higher than the already ten undead per crusader, they would still fall.

There was nothing he had learned over the years that can used as an effective counter. Not during his heat filled campaigns in Egypt, not in the grassy and many times muddy rolling hills of Hispania, and definitely not in his battles against the barbarian giants in the cold, snow filled lands of Germania. None of the teachings of his former Emperor had prepared him for this either; of being this disadvantaged. The closest things he could think of from his lessons was the Battle of Alesia commanded by Julius Caesar, being overrun by his enemies on all sides, low on food, forces, and lack of any outside help. Yet he had still won by creating an ingenious strategy never before thought let alone implemented. Cementing him to be one of the most intelligent and legendary generals ever produced by Rome.

" _...Never before thought let alone implemented."_ He thought in realization.

He looked behind him, skimming through his soldiers and the items in the Scarlet camp for that spark of genius he was gambling for. His eyes stopped at the large pile of shields placed near one of the tents. His mind screamed at their importance bringing the thought of the Tortoise formation and it's amazing strength to his mind but he knew that the shields would be broken apart easily with magic. He shook his head, his mind still thinking within the confines of Roman tactics. He then looked at his spellcasters, the Mages to be specific. Beings that provided so many new possibilities. Their power over flame thrusting itself into his mind. The list of spells they held sounding into his ear. **Dragon's Breath** , a spell was called, causing his mind to imagine a giant scaly flying lizard beast spewing hot fire.

Maximus blinked. Then a large grin with wide determined eyes grew upon his face.

"To the ruins! Everyone to the ruins! Crossbowmen, Zealots, relieve yourself of your weapon's and grab a sword and shield! We will not die this day!" Maximus called out pointing towards the ruins behind them with his sword. The small army did not hesitate. Everyone turned and sprinted towards the ruins, Zealots and Crossbowmen throwing their weapons to the ground like an old toy and picked up a sword and shield before following the others, with Maximus not far behind.

"Five rows! Five rows of ten! Shield-bearers take the far corners! Zealots, crossbowmen and the last four Shield-bearers take the second row on the left and right! Priests in the center! Mages to me!" Maximus ordered and the rest followed without question. In a matter of second five rows stood before him as the mages jogging to his side, curious on what he has planned for them.

" You all can cast **Dragon's Breath** , correct?"

The five Mages nodded.

"What is the longest time each of you have been able to hold it." They all responded accordingly.

Three minutes. Two minutes. Three minutes. Five minutes. Four minutes. Maximus spun his head towards the Mage, a woman, who held the longest time.

"Do you think you might be able to extend your time? To, at the very least, thirty minutes long?"

"I'm...not sure, my mind is still drained. I was only able to hold it for so long because I had channeled all my mana into it. I don't think I'd be able to hold it for more than thirty seconds in my current state." Maximus frowned, disappointed by her words. Magic is known to be able to remove the impossibilities. Their had to be a way.

"Is there any way to lessen the strain done to your mind? As well as a way to help sustain a constant supply of mana?" They thought for a moment. Maximus glanced to the marching army, who were apparently taking their time. Their march had slowed and some had actually stopped entirely. He noted the glowing blur of the Deathknight watching him, studying him. It left an unpleasant cold shiver down his spine.

The bastard is curious of what he would do, what he's capable of creating. His hesitation will be their salvation.

"There is a way," one of the Mages answered," Priests have a spell called **Sooth Mind,** it's mostly used for the injured to help them sleep, but its effect on a conscious mind is similar to a mind numbing drug. It should be able relieve her mind from any stress within. However, because of its numbing effect it will cause her to lose focus and possible kill us all…" He said with a hand on his chin, his face in a deep frown. A moment later, it brightened.

"We may be able to bypass that side effect by using our **Mana Siphon** spell to bolster Azuliara's mind, keeping her focused enough to direct and control the spell safely as well as provide her with more than enough mana for the casting. This combinations of spells should keep her mind from breaking under the stress and give her enough to power to hold the **Dragon's Breath** spell for an hour, if need be, but, my lord, this is just a theory, it very well might break her mind the moment we place our mana into her stopping whatever plan you've concocted to a halt." Maximus nodded sternly at the warning.

"That may be true but we will die either way if we don't try it." Maximus looked to the female Mage.

"Your name?"

"Azuliara."

"Azuliara, I have faith that you will do what must be done, with great success in fact. As I don't think you, all of you, should underestimate your selfs. You have all fought without rest and even when your mind tires and weakens you still fight and throw spells with just as much fire and will when your minds weren't as fatigued. I believe, no- I know, this plan will work as your strength of will is as paralleled to your faith to the Light." The Mages nodded. Their really was no point of not trying it.

"Line up in the center row, in front of the Priests. Also, inform them of what they are to do and Azuliara-"

"At the front of the line, my lord." She stated with a nod and a confident smirk that she now bore, most likely thanks to his speech, before walking off to her position along with the rest of the Mages. It would appear her faith in her abilities has been restored. Maximus took one last look at the coming army before sprinting to his new formation.

 **XXX**

With a single thought his army halted. Standing in ranks, their swords, claws, bows, and spells at the ready. Staring at the Crusaders forming into a formation Darkreaver had never seen before. As his armies entered the battlefield towards the Crusaders flanks Darkreaver was certain that they would fall easily. He was certain that their commander was so shocked at their appearance that he would either charge at him head on or hold fast and fight until they were killed. Instead, the commander ordered a quarter of his troops to drop their weapons and take a shield and sword. Ordered them all to retreat till they had the ruins of Andorhal at their backs. He spoke to his mages, seemingly coming up with a plan before they all joined the formation.

The commander impressed him, though his manner of clothing confused him; of all things why wear an armored skirt? That and he was curious on what sort of tactic he come up with to fight against his nine hundred strong army. It was for this reason he stopped his army, to watch this commander lead his warriors first hand. The likelihood that they would survive this was slim to none so he allowed himself a sliver of laziness. His want for entertainment at the forefront of his mind. As well as the thought of having another competent leader in the Scourge ranks whispered in the shadows of his mind. All in all he would be returning to Araj by nightfall victorious with the commander's body as his prize.

For now, he would watch and learn what sort of tricks this commander held in mind.

The formation, Darkreaver noted, placed an emphasis on a Mage's power. If the unprotected female at the center of the unique shield wall was any indication. The other's, save the Mages and Priests, held shields creating a rectangular wall of steel covering the sides, front, rear, and above. Protecting the fortitude of the formation. While the Mages and Priest in the center row held no such defence but Darkreaver could see a faint glow covering their bodies, a sign of **Power Word: Shield**. An image of a battering ram entered his mind. The walls of shields becoming wooden and the spellcasters at the center as the ram.

Darkreaver physically blinked. He plans to break through his undead hordes.

Cut off the head of the snake and the rest will follow? A foolish strategy. It would seem no one has told him that the undead does not need a master to live-err unlive. They only need a master to think. For direction, for leadership, for purpose.

For what is a war machine without a pilot.

It saddened him that this battle will be no more than a small skirmish. The commander and his small force would be crushed under the weight of the undead army moments into ramming. This battle will leave him so...unsatisfied.

He wished for a battle of the minds, a war of tactic and strategy, like a good old game of chess but if he could not have that. He supposed a battle of strength can suffice. An undead versus human, commander versus commander, duel. No armies. No magic. Just their wits and their skill with a blade.

Yes, that will do just nicely.

Now, Bloodcaller, it is your last move. Your King is already on check and it would seem the path you have chosen for it to lead will fall under a checkmate.

 **XXX**

"They stopped moving, why did they stop moving?!"

"Shut up you! Keep your shield arm stiff or else we're all are gonna die!"

"Trust in our commander, he has not strayed us away from the path and I believe he will not do so now.

"But what are we to do? He hasn't said anything to us yet!"

While their words were in whispers the enclosed space caused their words to echo, catching the ears of every crusaders, including Maximus. He twitched at their words but focused on the enemy. He searched and scanned through the undead army to find the point where the least amount of undead stood so that they would reach the other side the quickest. Fighting the undead in open battle was now suicide. What they needed to do was retreat, to run from them until they find a better position or if the Gods, his or this world's, blessed them with a miracle. They would find other Crusaders to join their force.

Sadly, the only way out of this is through the undead themselves, as they created a thick concave of rotten flesh blocking their path. Which is why he created this new formation. He hasn't got a name for it yet but that was the least of his concerns. From what he could see, the undead, as he had noticed before, were evenly divided on all sides. If there were hundreds to the left then it was the same to the right and forward. There was no weak point. He has done all could. He made sure the formation was as perfect it could be, ensured their ram was at its strongest, and exhausted all possibilities of a different attack.

It's left to chance now. The chance that they could break through hundreds of attacking undead until they reach the other side. It was a small chance but it is still something. They would have to take it.

"Maximus," a voice called to him, shaking him out of his thought. He turned and saw Keldyon. He stood at the front of the fourth row, across from him at the second, on the other side of Azuliara.

"What are your orders, my lord?"

"We break through," he said bluntly and instinctively. " We become a battering ram. Our ram is Azuliara, our walls are our shields, and our wheels are our feet. We will crush the undead in our way until we are free from this trap and from there we retreat. We can not face this many."

"But we have killed hundreds before, in one day no less, this should be no different!" A defiant Crusader said gaining a few murmurs of agreement.

"Not with a Deathknight at their helm. Not with his magic and years of strategic experience at their side. If this force was leaderless then we may have been able to win an outright battle but with a Deathknight at their side it changes everything. We must fall back." Maximus commanded, silencing them all. They understand now, he figured, that the only sensible choice was to run.

"Then, if this as dire you say, might I suggest using the blessed horn." Keldyon said, catching the attention of all present. Maximus glanced down at his hip, his sword gripped hand rubbing the horns engraved side. The Roman glanced up to look into Keldyon's eyes for a moment before nodding. Maximus stabbed his Spatha shaped Warmaster Sword into the ground before grabbing the horn.

The horn itself was made out of ivory but ornate with gold, silver, and precious stones. The very moment you held it in your hands you could feel its immense power. Waiting to be released when rung across the field. Maximus did not know what it would do but reading the engraved Latin written across its side. He could accurately guess its purpose.

The Horn of Bloodlust it is called, which would mean only death would follow after its howl.

"Everyone, as soon as I blow the horn we will charge to the right. Do not leave your position for any circumstance. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Good, then ready yourselves," he said before bringing the horn to his lips. He took a large breath of air into his mouth then blow with all the force he could muster. The resounding howl was...chilling.

It sounded like battle cry, a roar of not hundreds, not thousands, not hundreds of thousands, but _millions_ of warriors screaming into combat. The sound entered his ears and he could feel the biggest chill grow from his spine before spreading. It moved down and up at the same time. It reached his shoulder as it also reached his thighs. As it reached his knees it was all over his arms. As it reached his feet, his neck and face were encased by it. Then he felt a burning sensation in his stomach. It was building slowly, he could feel its weight. It was very heavy, and very, very hot. He could feel its weight on his entire body, on his legs, shoulders. The burning soon covered his entire chest. He held in the pain as best he could but it was too much. He had to release it.

ROOOOOAAARRRRRRRRRR!

He roared along with every other warrior under his command. Their screams, a bloodcurdling roar, bounced off the entire area, echoing itself on the very ruins of the once great city. Maximus felt stronger, faster, angier. He knew the others felt the same. He knew they felt their blood boiling in power. Their bodies quaking under their barely tempered restraint. Their hearts, their minds, screaming at them to main, to dismember, to kill!

Yet, he couldn not let it control him, let it consume him. He needed his mind intact. He brought that rage to his heel, strangely it almost felt like it kneeled...willingly. Questions for later as now he needed to direct his warriors.

For a sword cannot strike without its wielder.

"Remember! Stay in formation! Now, charge!" he roared out as he charged to the undead armies to his right side. He could hear his warriors still howls in their charge, even the calm minded Mages and Priests partook in it. Out of the corner of his eye he could see a blue glow of light hit Azuliara in the back. She roared once more before bring both of her hand forward. They glowed red for a moment, then bright orange, before finally turning bright, azure, blue. A large dragon like skull made out of azure flames appeared before her and in a matter of moments the largest torrent of flame escaped its mouth.

He could not see what happened to the undead in front of him as the flame consumed everything in his vision. All he saw was blue, blue everywhere. He could feel the heat coming from it. It was hot, hotter than anything he felt. It was as if he standing by a small blue sun. It brought sweat to his brow, he body felt wet as well. Yet his feet felt oddly dry. His mind still in shock he foolishly looked down and noticed sand on his feet.

Sand, he thought, what is that doing here? Before looking back up to the blue screen of flame. Something his mind realized that there were no bones crunching under his feet. That the undead were not leaving rotting and burned carcases behind. The sand on his sandaled feet was not sand at all but ashe. The ashe of undead Azuliara was burning in seconds. He looked to her and saw her eyes were illuminated in a bright hue of gold. The only explanation for it is that it was a side effect of using The Horn of Bloodlust.

"Maximus! We have nearly reached to the other side of the undead!" Azuliara screamed out over the roaring flames.

Already?! They only started moments ago. It hasn't even felt like a full minute has passed!

"How do you know!?" Maximus screamed back.

"I-I can see through the flames!" She sounded confused at her own ability but also excited, excited what she had accomplished.

"Tell me the moment we're through!"

"Yes, sir!...Sir, we just made it through!" She said sounding mildly sheepish at the immediate completion of her task.

This yet again shocked Maximus but for only a moment.

" Disperse! Out of formation! Run as fast you can! RUN!" Maximus ordered and in a mere moments the tight and study formation loosened allowing his company of fifty to run at their fastest pace. Those who wore cloth were obviously faster than the rest leading the company at its head. Behind them were the mail wearers, the crossbowmen, as well as Maximus. At their rear were all the plate wearers, the Shield-bearers and Zealots. Maximus glanced behind him and saw the undead army chasing after them, the Deathknight that was once in their rear plowing through his minions towards the front. His undead horse, despite seemly decayed and decrepit was still strong enough to crush the minions.

The champion of death looked angry.

He grinned manically at the man's rage, he even chuckled. It would seem that the Deathknight never predicted a withdraw from battle. Which was understandable, from what he learned of the tactics that the Scarlet Crusade implemented. He, himself, would have assumed they were to aim their battering ram directly into the enemy commander.

" _His net was not strong enough to hold this bull!"_ He thought with excitement, laughing at their escape.

He and his company saw red, indeed. The horns power still lingered in their veins, their minds still crying out for blood but their intense sprint was holding those cries at bay. They were sixty maybe seventy meters away ahead of the undead. Though the Deathknight and his Skeletal rider's might reach them with their mounts, even with their increased speed. He would have to deal with them when they can not be ignored any longer. For now, he must focus on finding a better position for a defence or a way for an army nearly a thousand strong, from his estimates, to lose sight of them.

They ran for what felt like hours but it was only several minutes. Passing by the ruins of Andorhal with speed. An army of undead and their horse riding commander galloping ahead of them at their rear.

He could feel the ground shake with the undead army charging behind them, their feet thundering the ground. The small rocks and other pieces of stones lightly bounced or shook in their strength. He noticed some of the standing ruins also shake, some even crumble. A guard tower that stood in their direct path fell and the resulting debris fell upon the intersection they were running towards. It blocked access to their forward route leaving the left or right roads available. Not wanting to run towards the center of the city he shouted an order to the right.

"To the right! Do not lose speed!" He said, his voice quaking lightly from a lack of breath. He could feel the power of horn disappear with him and he can assume the others feel the same. His body now felt more tired, constricted, than it did before, in fact it felt heavier than it did before the horn was blown.

" _No! It must be a side effect from using the horn!"_ his felt body felt heavy not in power but instead with strain and need of rest. He looked behind them and he saw the Deathknight and his riders only twenty maybe even fifteen meters away from them and his army not that far behind him. They have been slowing down!

As they reached the turn another event of horror occurred. Those large, corpse sewn, monstrosities called abominations appeared from the left road and now they were sprinting to cut them off. They might be slow but their very large size would halt their retreat and halt it they did. Their weighing bodies gave the abominations enough spare seconds to block their path. His company halted and frantically looked for another way. There was none. They were trapped yet again.

Maximus cursed as he held his chest, his lungs demanding more air. He stared at the slobbering beasts of flesh in front of them. He had never predicted they would put a perimeter defence to stop them from escaping. Yet they did and now they have been stopped. They couldn't even fight, or at very least he couldn't, the horn sucked every once of energy within him. He could barely stand straight, others were hunched over, eyes wide with fear and realization.

Maximus watched as some of the warriors, mostly the zealots, struggled to raise their weapons. To fight to the bitter end. He could see Keldyon's hands shake as he held his sword up. His blade twitching to the sides in his weakness. Maximus turned his head towards the charging army of undead. He stared into the cold eyes of the Deathknight.

He did not feel fear, in this moment. He felt rage. Rage that this so called destiny of his merely sent him off to another world to die, again! Screw destiny! Screw the gods and their plans! He came here on their word. Ripped him away from his family, from his received him and gave him new life. Now they expect him to die, again?! He's not going to lose his life again, not after only a week of time has passed! Maximus gripped his sword and shield with as much strength as he could and continued his stare towards the DeathKnight.

He will not die this day or any other! He will see himself drown in wine in old age than die in battle again! He will fight and he will win!

A soft whooshing sound followed by a wet explosion stunned him momentarily as he could feel something hit his body, looking to his arm he saw it to be blood. Her turned around and found several abominations bodies had imploded leaving an opening for them to escape. On the other side of the mounds of rotten flesh their were horse riders, dozens of them all in red, all coming from the rightmost street. Heavy, thick, and long spears in one hand and a sword or shield in another. A few others carried a staff and wore cloth. The horses were covered in heavy armor colored in red and white.

They roared and charged head first into battle!

"For the Crusade!"

"For the Light!"

"For Lordaeron!"

He heard them all scream out as they rushed past him slaughtering the abominations in one fell swoop and charging towards the army of the dead. Their formation was tight and sturdy and with their horses armored with plating the horseman pieced through the undead ranks killings dozens maybe even hundreds with their charge. The priests firing **Holy Nova's** , the warrior swiping away wilding, and the horses neighing with courage.

One of the horsemen had turned and had turned back towards him and his company.

"Get to the North Western Tower, near the entrance. Second Lieutenant Fidelis is calling a complete withdraw to all Scarlet forces to regroup at the tower. He aims to coordinate an organized counter attack and take back Andorhal." The rider said simply before turning his horse and riding off to group up with the other horsemen in battle.

Their was moment of silence. As they began to realize that they had survived. Shock and surprise leaving them.

" We must go. Their will be more battles after this." Maximus spoke after his moment of silence. His company responded in confirmation before they began to slowly walk out of the area and towards the northwest.

 **XXX**

After several minutes of marching they had finally gotten far enough away to lose the sound of battle in the air. With this subtle change the company began to relax, only slightly however. They could still be more undead lurking in every corner. Thankfully, some of their strength was returning, mostly likely for a small burst of combat but no more than that. He estimated that they still needed to rest, maybe a entire day of rest even.

Though now that they had a moment of peace. He needed to continue his quest for information.

"Keldyon, this Second Lieutenant, do you know him?" Maximus asked. Keldyon nodded.

"Aye, the lad is young, no more than nineteen but doesn't look like it though. He has a strong arm, a sensible mind, decent with tactics, well in our standards that is, but even then I could see his hesitancy in his command. I knew that when he would face the undead and the battle begins to go to the undeads favor, the moment true great leaders are born, that he would either break down from the pressure or find his strength his leadership. In all honesty, even with my lack of complete trust in his abilities. I am probably the only one of the only sargents, as well as instructors, that thought that he would have some success, overall."

"And why is that?" He asked curiously. Keldyon glanced at him for moment before looking away and continuing.

"He's a Fidelis from House Fidelis, the first of family to be royalty in Lordaeron, the wealthiest and most powerful of the Lordaeron Houses, more so than even Menethil, the last royal family in our kingdom. They ruled over the former capital of Valinci. Most importantly, however, their ancestor Fidelis Apostolus was the man that brought the faith of Light into our society. He is revered because of that. Though, his greatness does not necessarily mean it has been passed down to his descendents. They say with every generation of Fidelis one can only guess on what sort of family is still their. Many times they became self centered and close minded letting their prestige and status corrupt them. Other times they are gluttonous and lazy. Or they are dangerous and filled with bloodlust." He paused for a moment as they all heard movement from a fallen building. A skeleton sticked its head out of the rubble but it was soon dispatched by an arrow before they marched on ward.

"As I was saying, they are known to change drastically in a very short time. And though nobles in general are not exempt from all the qualities I had listed. The Fidelis House don't try and hide what they are. Unlike how most other Houses who would try and keep a positive image for both the populace and other nobles, the Fidelis just wouldn't care. What you see is what you get, they once said. Because of this many view the House Fidelis as it is today as a shadow of a once great dynasty. Fallen to its own power and greed. Yet many never bother to hear or learn about the good some generations actually do and I'd like to say the generation we have now is one of them."

"And what good have they done?"

"In a general term they are bringing back honor, valor, righteousness, and selflessness back into their family name. Vacuo's grandfather, Sapientiae, began this change and his son, Iustus, Vacuo's father continued it and now Vacuo continues it himself. I've seen his father before, as well, during a trial of a nobleman. Iustus created an excellent speech about respect towards our lessers and got the nobleman who mutilated an entire family for a game convicted, their nobility stripped, and land given to a neighboring house. Their good people, this generation of Fidelis are. Shame they were betrayed."

"Betrayed? By whom?"

"Vacuo has an older brother, Salvos, that creten of a man joined the Cult of the Damned killing most of his family and destroying Valinci along with them. Now that place is a cesspool of corruption. Only Vacuo and his younger sister, Umbra, survived and arrived at Hearthglen for sanctuary. Their he joined the crusade and began his training."

Vengeance. He was very intimate with it. Vacuo is yet another chapter in its wake. He also knew the feeling of betrayal. Though he was not the directed victim of it he still felt that sharp quake in his heart when he realized Commodus killed his own father. He had never thought the man would ever consider it, which was why it was so shocking.

Now, Vacuo must face an army of undead to protect his sister while at same time clearing a path to kill his brother. It is quite similar to his own circumstance. Of finding a way to get close to Commodus while trying to not get killed by his Praetorian guard. Luckily, he had a path inside Roma by way of being a gladiator. Vacuo does not have, to his knowledge, a way in like he did. He would need to fight through all the undead from Andorhal to wherever Valanci is.

Valanci, that name is so...Roman. As well as Vacuo, Fidelis, Salvos, Umbra. They were all Roman names. Did this world have, or had now that Valanci was destroyed, a society similar to his own. A language similar to his own. It wouldn't make any sense if they did. He wasn't much of a scholar who studies the rise and fall of kingdoms but having two societies literally worlds apart growing to have such similarities should be impossible.

" _Fidelis Apostolus,"_ he repeated in his head.

Fidelis. It means faithful, or loyal. And Apostolus, Apostle, a dedicated follower of their gods. Fidelis Apostolus stands for 'loyal follower of the gods'. Either it was pure coincidence that he brought the faith of Light into this world with that name. Or he changed it when he found the gods of the Light. The latter is much more likely than the former. This is all so strange.

Or he could be misunderstanding this completely and in this world's version of Latin these words means something completely different. He wouldn't know until he asked Vacuo, someone from the city of Valanci, about the exact meaning and possibly origins of this language.

"How far are we from the tower, Keldyon?" Maximus asked, forcing himself out of his musings. He can spend more thought on it later.

"Another twenty minutes I'd say. We were heading this way in the first place so we aren't that far but with all the blocked streets and pathways its causing us to take detour after detour. At least it looks like the undead in this quarter of Andorhal is non-existent. Vacuo and his crusaders must be doing well at solidifying his control of the area."

"No, if he was solidifying his control we should have seen at least a patrol or a fortified position by now. He's merely clearing out the undead from the area and ordering his men to recall. A simple way to make sure he doesn't loose men with prolonged time outside of their stronghold and to ensure that the undead don't entrench themselves so close to their position. Good move on his part, and those horse riders of his are his messengers ralling as many crusaders they can find back to their stronghold. He trying his best to not lose his soldiers without unnecessary risks." Maximus remarked with some praise, the young officer had potential, indeed. Keldyon chuckled, causing Maximus to raise an eyebrow.

"Finally, some praise, I'm not afraid to admit that your disparages towards out battle tactics did hurt my pride, quite a lot actually."

"Well, I wouldn't need to disparage it if your instructors had actually taught you something useful." He responded with a humored scoff.

"Ha! Once we win this battle I'll have to warn the trainers back in Hearthglen about you. Wouldn't want them to try and kill you for calling them incompetent." Keldyon finished with a wide grin though covered by his red helmet.

"I'd like to seem them try," Maximus said before laughing," Better yet I hope they do. I'll beat my wisdom of war into them." His words caused Kledyon to laugh, along with several others who overheard them.

"Shhh!" A crossbowmen interrupted, loud enough to catch everyone's attention. Their smiles turned to grim, serious, in a matter of second.

"Listen!" He continued. Seeing the seriousness in his eyes they decided to do as he asked.

For the first few moment they heard nothing but they noticed the sound of a horse's hooves hitting the ground. It was at this moment that they noticed the area around them was unusually quiet, even the echoing moan bouncing off the crumbling stones wall could not heard. It put most of them on edge. Most unsheathed their weapons in preparation.

"A rider? It could one of the horsemen that helped us escape." A Shield-bearer commented.

"Why, they already gave us their message what more do they have to say?" Another one commented.

"Who knows." A crossbowmen then said.

Maximus heard them and wanted to hope it was crusader trying to find them concerning about a forgotten message. However, as he listened to the horses galloping, being steered by its rider as he or she looks for them. He couldn't help but feel like something was wrong, that something was missing. He looked through memories of the riders that saved them, no matter how brief, and tried to see if he could find his answer their.

He had to figure it out soon as the rider is closer and closer by the moment. The calvarymen he saw earlier wore plate and cloth. So did the horses, the armor around its large body causing clunking or jingling sounds. He heard neither of those from this rider.

" _It isn't one of the riders. If that's the case who is it?_ " He thought before realizing the only other horsemen he has seen today. Those were those two skeletal mages riding dead horses but saw them be crushed by the calvary men.

A soft chill ran up his spine.

"Standard formation! Standard Formation, quickly! It not the other crusaders! It's-"

BURRROWWWWW

A frightening howl from what sounded like a horn caused the company of soldiers to grow wide eyes. As down the road behind them stood a large undead horse with its pale, blue eyed, rider on top of it. A horn with a skeletal design near his lower jaw. In the next several moments the air around them grew cold, light frost began to creep on the ground, buildings, even on their bodies. They could now see their breath every time they exhaled and their bodies began to shiver in the now near freezing cold air. The Deathknight placed the horn back to his waist then drew his long, silver, and lightly glowing blade from his back before grabbing the horses reins, tugging on them, and commanding his beast to sprint forward in haste.

"Formation!" Maximus commanded. His company quickly went back into their standard formation.

Maximus watched as the Deathknight swiped his sword in front of him, the blade glowed bright green for a second before returning to a light blue. In the next moment the horse glowed in bright blue and began run faster than before, much faster! By the time he could realize the change of speed. The Deathknight he was already on top of them.

"Brace!" He said a second before the horse struck them. The mixture of magic and unholy strength threw the three rows of Shield-bearers apart and in every direction for several feet. Those in the center of the wall were trampled and instantly killed from the force.

Maximus groaned as he slide across the ground before willing himself up, ignoring the pain, to only bare witness as the Deathknight swiped with his sword and killed two of his Priests. With a growl Maximus stood up and removed his spear from its holster on his shield. He brought the spear over his right shoulder and his left arm up to help with balance. Aimed at the Deathknight's horse specifically at its chest as it was being held together by the leather harness. Then, with all the strength he could muster, threw the spear towards the horse, piercing the leather straps. With the Deathknight on top of its back it caused its decrepit body to break in half with a cry. Leaving the Deathknight to fall on his ass. He did this in the matter of five seconds.

The Deathknight shook his head before roaring in rage. He quickly rose to his feet and parried the blade of a Zealot. He kicked the crusader in the gut caving the plate armor inward causing the Zealot to gasp. The Deathknight then slashed downward from a overhead swing slicing through his armor and body nearly cutting him in half. His blade was then stuck in the Zealot's intestines. Seeing his circumstance two Shield-bearers charged at him with swords at the ready. The DeathKnight pointed his palm towards them and a thick storm of snow and ice shot out of his hand covering the two crusaders completely. Once the snow disappeared the two warriors were frozen solid and most likely dead. The Deathknight was then able to remove his sword from the Zealot's corpse only to receive a **Pyroblast** directly to his chest.

The blast seemed to have almost no effect save for a few scorch marks on his armor and cloth. He growled before he swiped his sword into the air and once again the blade turned bright green. This time, however, a green blob, looking eerily like a skull, shot out of his blade towards the mage who shot him with a **Pyroblast**. With the Mages already being fatigued long before their escape he could not put up an adequate defence. Allowing the green skull to hit his chest. He screamed as the attack melted a hole into his very body before collapsing dead.

"Surround him! Don't attack him individually!" Maximus commanded and his company followed. Many of his Shield-bearers encircled him along with all his Crossbowmen aiming their crossbows at the Deathknight between the warriors heads.

"NO! DON'T!" Keldyon screamed his arm stretched out in front of him.

Maximus noticed the sargents reaction to his order and trusting in the man's experience he opened his mouth to order the company to scatter but before he could the soldiers surrounding the Deathknight began to scream.

He could see the very ground glow sickly green and red around them all. Their armor turning to liquid, their faces melting off the bone, their bodies crumbling underneath them, their screams so loud he was sure it would haunt him in his dream in the future. Half of his entire company melted before his eyes and the culprit stood at the very center, surrounded by the cursed ground he created. He sword was planted into the stone near his feet and as the screams stopped the Deathknight looked at his handy work before removing his blade from the ground and at the same time the large circle of glowing green and red disappeared.

Deathknight looked at Maximus for a moment before raising his blade above his head once more.

"Enough of this!" The Deathknight's voice was cold, lifeless, it even held echo to it. It was quite possible one of the few things that frightened him in his entire life.

The Deathknight then pierced the ground once more but instead of a glowing green and red circle. The ground erupted with spikes of ice surrounding himself and his surviving company, leaving no escape possible. The Deathknight then removed the sword from the ground before swiping it in the air once more but instead of bright green it turned into a darker icy blue as a wave of cold sweeped towards them. In the next moment the ice surrounding them shot metal chains and grabbed the entire company, all but Maximus. The chains wrapped around their arms, legs, throats, and chests, before trapping them on the side of cold ice spikes.

"You will not escape me this time, human!" The Deathknight announced as he aimed his sword towards Maximus.

"Than I won't run!" He said readying his sword and shield. The Deathknight's eyes glowed in excitement.

"Good, now die!" He yelled as he swung his sword.

A battle of Champions has begun.

 **XXX**

 **Yes. yes a cliffhanger, I know. I'm sorry for messing with you.**

 **Now, time for what I said in the beginning. I will be explaining an aspect to my story development from an author standpoint. Now this subject had been argued over thousands of reddits, youtube comments, and animes posts for deceased.**

 **Power Levels.**

 **Now before you start ranting to yourself….or is that just me? Anyway, I know that power levels isn't everything as the weak can just as easily defeat the strong by utilising the rights skills, tactics, and so on. However, power levels is how most people try to rationalize the need for these things or else it would be like a lot anime where the main character would just spam one special attack or just power up to the next tier then beat the ever living shit out of their opponent.**

 **Also, for future reference, Maximus will not get mid battle super power ups from the gods or something like that. Either he wins or he loses just like how it is in real life.**

 **Now, back to power levels. The system I'm using is something many of you are familiar with and if you aren't then you must really like reading the WoW books then. The system I am referring to is the world of warcraft level and ranking system.**

 **For example, Araj the Summoner, in WoW, is usually a level 60 elite boss tier enemy. Something that would require either a really good player, also heavily geared, and in the right class or a full party to beat easily.**

 **This is in currently a Burning Crusade standard by the way. At one point I will be changing to a WOTLK standard instead.**

 **Now, onto the main character, Maximus' level and rank. Now this where I add in my two cents as the system gets slightly more complicated. As I start to add in the HERO class from WC3 concept into the mix.**

 **Here is a character sheet you can say for Maximus:**

 **Class: Roman General**

 **Rank: Hero**

 **Level: 65**

 **Now this is more or less how I have Maximus in my head.**

 **For Darkreaver its something like this:**

 **Class: Deathknight**

 **Rank: Elite Boss**

 **Level: 60**

 **As you can see I have Darkreaver as a lower level than Maximus.**

 **Now this is the most complicated part of the scaling.**

 **The Level, in this sense, are not the power level of the person but more so the amount of raw strength the character has.**

 **The Rank here is akin to a modifier in DnD terms. Maximus is a Hero rank so he can pretty much solo a shit of enemies, though he can still be overrun by them just like how it is in WC3. The rank for Darkreaver is Elite Boss meaning he can tank DOZENS of Hero level enemies and still live.**

 **Now the final aspect, reality. Now this is fiction, that is true, but what I mean by reality is by realism translated from books and lore. I am not removing the possibility that Darkreaver can't defeat dozens of Hero class opponents but it also doesn't mean that he can't be killed by one.**

 **The guy doesn't have a million health like in a raid.**

 **In this instance Darkreaver can indeed be beaten by Maximus as he is holding back for the sake of entertainment meaning his most powerful weapon being his magic will not be used. Magic being the raw strength I was talking about being amplified by his mastery and experience over it, equaling his rank Elite Boss.**

 **A complicated system indeed but it helps set how two or several character will do in battle.**

 **Like how a Scarlet Shield-Bearer is level 60 Elite while a ghoul is just a level 60 normi. Which is how one scarlet equals ten undead minions.**

 **Oh, and Hero is above Elite by the way but lower than all the Boss ranks except Normi Boss, like Hogger :3**

 **Finally, for the extra details.**

 **Yes, this is based in Burning Crusade timeline currently the battle for the Black Temple is occurring and Kael'thas has just began his betrayal of both illidan and Azeroth.**

… **.that it...wait there has to be more! Gah, can't remember what else their was. Please someone send me PMs or reviews about thing you would like to know or learn more about so I can add it in the next chapter or respond by PM myself. I know there was more.**

 **If any of you have criticism, please try and make it constructive. Also if you enjoy my story please either fave/follow/review or check in once in awhile to see if there' an update.**

 **If you have any question please feel free to PM me or have an idea you would like to suggest don't hesitate tell me. I love talking to my readers.**

 **Have a nice day! :D**


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